Bad Dog!
by Grimmijaggers
Summary: Clara is best friends with Snape and her ravenclaw friend, Beatrice, but hates the Marauders, especially James. Clara won't stop at anything to get to her goal, but why is that damned Sirius in her way! OC used :3
1. Introduction of a weirdo

Bad Dog!

Chapter 1: Introduction of a weirdo

**Time for some Marauder stories I think! X3**

Clara walked out of Hogwarts, walking towards the lake. She noticed a group of students standing in a circle. But that wasn't what shocked her. James Potter was suspending Severus Snape upside down. Clara anger rose, and walked briskly towards the group. She saw Lily walking away, seeming both angry and upset. Clara ignored Lily, her sight set on her target: James.

"Potter! You put Severus down, **now**!" Clara yelled at the messy haired boy, who simply sneered at her.

"What do you want, Rambo?" James replied nastily. "Come here to save Snivellus have you? How touching. I thought all Slytherins were cowards." Clara's face reddened in anger. How dare he?

"Oh, shut up! Just because you're a cocky, self-centred git doesn't mean we all have to be!" She yelled at him, the latter seeming a little taken back, but he quickly smirked in response.

"Cocky am I? Then what about him?" James asked, moving his wand a little, showing that he was talking about Snape. "Isn't he a little arrogant?" Clara growled at James, walking towards him threateningly.

"Watch it, Potty." She said darkly. "We wouldn't anyone to get _seriously hurt_ would we now?" she took out her wand, pointing it at Potter's face. Sirius Black pointed his wand to Clara, Wormtail looking a little frightened, and even Remus Lupin was eyeing the fight. "I would put Severus down if I were you." Clara whispered dangerously. James gulped, but frowned, smirking viciously.

"You can't do anything, Rambo. I've got my pals here to back me up, and there's a whole audience here who would be more than pleased to get you expelled. You know no one likes you." He answered. Clara's anger over took her, and slapped James so hard that he was thrown to ground, his wand flying out his hand. Severus dropped to the floor, standing up, staggering a little. Sirius snarled at Clara, who kicked him in the shin, making him yelp. Wormtail scurried to Remus, who had stood up.

"Clara de Rambures! You shall not use violence against other students! Fifty points from Slytherin!" he scorned, but Clara only laughed mockingly.

"_What_? Aren't you supposed to be a prefect?! I thought a prefect's job was to make sure all the pupils treated each other equally! But no! There's a certain filthy half-breed who thinks it's alright to let his pals bully another pupil, you dirty monster!" Clara yelled at Remus angrily. She knew about Remus being a werewolf, and she knew that Sirius, James and Wormtail were animagi. Remus took a step backwards, seeming horrified. Clara snarled at him, kicked Sirius again for good measure, and stepped on James as she walked to Severus, who was collecting his things. "Come on Severus, let's go." She said quietly so that only he could hear her. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him back towards the school. When they were in the safety of the Slytherin common room, she let go of Severus' wrist.

"You didn't have to come to my help." He muttered. Clara rolled her eyes, and smiled to him.

"Come on, Severus, don't be like that. We're friends, and I want to help you whenever you need it. You've helped me so many times when revising the exams, so I want to help you too." She said kindly. Snape nodded stiffly, and muttered 'thanks', then left to go to his dormitory. Clara sighed heavily, and sat down on a sofa in the common room, taking out her revision notes for her Transfiguration exam. After a while she fell asleep.

"_de R…Ram…bu…res, Clara." McGonagall called out, struggling on the surname. All the students laughed, and a rather tall, long light brown haired girl sat on the stool, her hazel eyes showing her clear embarrassment. Professor McGonagall apologized, and put the sorting had on the girl's head._

'_Hm…' the hat said thoughtfully. Clara was wondering in which house she would be put. Her mother had been in Gryffindor, while her father in Ravenclaw. Clara's grandparents had been put in Hufflepuff, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw as well, but in all honesty, Clara really wanted to be in Slytherin. _

_Clara was a pure blood, but it's not like she showed off about it. She didn't find it important. However, she was related to Lucius Malfoy by blood, some way or the other, and really looked up to him. She found him awesome in every way, and got along really well with him. 'Let's see…daughter of Milona and Charlie…yes I remember those two…You have a good mix in your blood…apart from Slytherin…let's see…what about…Gryffindor?' the hat said thoughtfully. Clara frowned, which she knew was visible to the others, and shook her head._

'_No, I don't want to be in Gryffindor. Or the others...I want to be put in Slytherin.' She thought, hoping the hat would take this into consideration. The hat laughed._

'_What? But you are nothing like what a Slytherin is. Quite the opposite actually. You are brave, forward, patient, and kind, smart when you feel like it, even though you do sometimes let your anger lead you into things.' Clara snorted. Patient? Not likely. Hot blooded? Totally. _

'_So? I want to be put in Slytherin. Lucius was in Slytherin, and the whole Black family too, except for Sirius.'_

'_Yes, but the Weasleys have always been in Gryffindor, and you are also related to them. Please may I remind you that Arthur and Molly are close family members to you.'_

_This little argument had gone on for a good ten minutes, making all the students a little shocked. Clara's mum had been one of the gentlest, most loveable person Gryffindor ever had, while her Dad had been very short-tempered, but a great friend, with enough brains to pass every N.E.W.T with an 'O'. Charles-Henry de Rambures was French, but lived in England, while Milona was German, but also lived in England. But anyway, everybody had expected to be put in Gryffindor the second the hat saw her, so this was quite a shock to everyone. _

_Finally, after another five minutes, the hat seemed to have made its decision. "SLYTHERIN!" _

_Silence hit the students and teachers. Slytherin? Really? The Gryffindors seemed to be the most taken back, while the Slytherins bellowed their cheers and applauds as Clara sat in between two Slytherin students._

"_Quiet, please!" McGonagall called. "Snape, Severus."_

"Clara, hey, Clara, wake up." A voice woke Clara from her dream, which had been of her sorting into Slytherin. She looked up and saw Snape.

"Wut…?" she yawned, stretching a little.

"We've got out Transfiguration exam now. Hurry up if you don't want to be late." Snape answered, his bag hanging from his shoulder. Clara jolted and looked at the time.

"Oh, dammit!" she quickly put all her stuff in a bag, and hurried after Snape. "Thanks for waking me up."

"Don't mention it." Snape said dryly. Clara smiled. She knew that Snape was a good person, but that he didn't really like to show it. She wasn't too sure why, but there you have it.

"Hey, Clara, Snape!" called a hyper voice. Clara looked back, being met by her friend, Beatrice. The latter was a shoulder length ginger haired, pale faced girl, who wore purple rimmed glasses and was shorter than Clara. She ran to them, puffing a little. "Hey, have you James and the others?" she asked. Clara frowned.

"No, nor do I care." Clara hissed. Beatrice raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

"Lemme guess, you've had a fight with them." Beatrice stated. Clara shrugged, and said goodbye to Beatrice, because she had to get to her exam.

When they arrived, Snape was to sit at the front row, and Clara on the third row. She wished good luck to Snape, even though she knew he didn't really need it, since he was smart and did do well in exams, and sat down at her place. A second later, James, Sirius, Remus and Wormtail entered. She ignored them, but couldn't help smirking when she noticed James' bruised cheek. It had only been a slap, but Clara knew she slapped him pretty hard. But she growled when Sirius sat next to her, and he snarled back.

"Aw, what's wrong? Limping are we?" She mocked. He glare at her, and Clara just chuckled, turning to her exam paper.

"All right, you may start." Said the teacher. Clara started.

Transfiguration wasn't her best subject, but with Snape's help, she found it fairly manageable. Next to her, Sirius was writing away. She huffed, and finished writing, checking over her answers, making sure she had made as little mistakes as possible. With a satisfied smile she put her quill down, and waited.

She was hoping to get at least an 'E' in all her O. . Her father had gotten 'O's in all of them, including his N.E. , and her mother had gotten a mix of 'E's and 'O's, even though she just barely passed them; her N.E.W.T. grades were much better than her O. . Clara wanted to either become a healer like her father, or an Auror like her mother. Clara's favourite subjects were Potions, care of magical creatures and Defence against the dark arts. She enjoyed Muggle Studies, and hated Divination. She didn't mind Transfiguration and was one of the top of her class in charms. Herbology was more of an extra activity to Clara, but she enjoyed it.

Clara was snapped out of her thoughts when he heard a bit of annoyed groaning from Sirius. She looked at him curiously, and saw that he was actually struggling at one of the questions which was worth eight marks. He looked at Clara, almost pleadingly. Clara looked away, smirking. For once, Sirius was struggling. But still, she couldn't help feeling guilty for not helping him. She was always like this. If she didn't help someone, anyone, she felt really guilty and needed to help them. She sighed in annoyance, and pushed her parchment to Sirius, showing him the answer to the question. The black haired boy seemed surprised, but also had a glint of gratefulness in his eyes, and quickly copied down Clara's answer. The girl sighed irritably, and pulled back her paper when Sirius had finished.

"Stop writing." Said the teacher after five minutes. "_Accio parchments!_" All the parchments went flying to the teacher, who collected them all and dismissed the class. Clara joined Snape.

"What did you think about it?" she asked eagerly; she thought she had done pretty well. Snape looked sourly at James and his friends, who seemed to be sniggering at him. "Oi, Severus, stop thinking about them."

"Hm…yeah. I thought the exam was fairly challenging, but manageable all the same." He said indifferently. Clara nodded, and started chatting to Snape; well technically she was doing the talking and Snape the listening. She was stopped when Beatrice called out to her again.

"Hey Beatrice, what's up?" she asked the ginger, who beamed at her.

"How did the exam go? I thought it was pretty easy." She said enthusiastically.

"It was manageable." Clara answered. "But you know what? Black was struggling on that eight mark question." She said eagerly. Beatrice's mouth flung open, and Snape looked as though he had just received a prize. "I know right?" Clara giggled, then sighed. "But he looked so pitiful, and you know how I get when I don't help someone who needs it…" she mumbled. Beatrice rolled her eyes, grinning, and Snape looked at her indignantly.

"Really, you should try to control that." He commented truthfully.

"I know, I know, no need to tell me." Clara sighed. They went to lunch, but Beatrice went off to her own table, waving goodbye to them. Beatrice was a Ravenclaw, but she had had a good three minutes of arguing with the sorting hat, for she wanted to be in Gryffindor, but gave in when the hat ignored her arguing.

Snape and Clara sat down at their table and started piling food onto their plates; Clara was at least, she liked her food. Snape actually had an acceptable amount of food on his plate. Clara ate hungrily, not noticing the presence of a certain Gryffindor.

"Oi, Rambo." Clara felt a pang of annoyance in her stomach and turned round to look at Sirius.

"_What_?" she asked impatiently, but soon looked surprised when she saw Sirius smile.

"I just wanted to say thanks. You really saved me in that exam. Guess I should've revised a little more after all." He grinned, seeming genuinely grateful. Clara raised an eyebrow, eyeing Sirius suspiciously.

"T'was nothing. I felt back seeing you looking so pitiful, nothing more." She shrugged. Sirius, grinning still, chuckled, and returned to his table, where James was ruffling his hair again, trying to catch Lily's attention, who ignored him.

Clara turned back to her food, and realised that all the Slytherins' eyes were on her. "What? Got a problem?" she asked threateningly. The students quickly returned to their food. Snape hadn't looked at either Clara or Sirius during this whole thing, and seemed indifferent about it. Except when he brought up the subject.

"Don't trust him." Snape said flatly. Clara jumped when Snape spoke and looked at him, surprised.

"I don't, but why are you worried anyway?" She asked, serving herself a generous amount of chocolate ice cream.

"Because, not only is he a Gryffindor, and Gryffindors and Slytherins have never been on good terms, but also, he's friends with Potter, and any friend of that person is not to be trusted." He said dryly. Clara nodded, digging into her pudding. She shoved the thought of Sirius and the others to the back of her mind, but something she couldn't identify nagged her.

**So there we are! Clara and Beatrice are…my OCs I guess…**


	2. Panther in the night

Bad Dog! 

Chapter 2: Panther in the night

"Can't sleep…" Clara muttered annoyingly. She rolled over to her right side, then to her left side, back to her right side, flopped down on her stomach, then fell out of bed. "Gah!" she cried out, muffle by her bed curtains. She stood up, seriously annoyed and completely awake.

'_Argh, damn sleeping, I'm going for a walk._' She thought desperately. She put her robes on quickly and quietly, and tip-toed out of her dorm, into the living room and into the corridor. There, she quickly rushed to the entrance hall, and slipped out of the main school.

When she was outside, she was met with the cold night air, a black sky, dotted with little bright spots. She sighed happily and ran towards the Forbidden Forest. She slowed down, and walked behind a tree. When she walked out from the other side, she wasn't human-looking anymore. She had changed into a black panther. Clara prided herself in being an animagus; it was one of the small numbers of things she liked about herself. She had hazel eyes and pitch black fur, making her look almost like a real panther, the only difference being the small electric blue stripes on her legs.

She wondered around the Forbidden forest, meeting a couple of the magical creatures living there. She got along well with the centaurs, even though she didn't meet them much. She went into the direction of the large tree which had been planted the year she had arrived. It really wasn't of any use, in her eyes, and found more of an eyesore than anything else. As she walked in that sort of direction, she stopped dead in her tracks, hearing some noises from afar. She lay flat on the ground, her ears pricked for any sound.

Footsteps. Four legs. Four beings. Two canines. One vermin. One deer.

'_Just them._' Clara thought uncaringly. She looked up at the sky, and saw the full moon shining brightly. She swayed her tail, and went in the opposite direction from where the other animagi were coming from. '_Just because they've turned into animals, it doesn't make them any better beings._' She thought again, thinking of the large black dog, the deer, the small rat and the wolf, also known as Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. She smelled the air, making sure they were far away from her. Instead she smelled them speeding towards her quickly. '_What? They couldn't have noticed me!'_ she quickly sped into the nearby trees of the Forbidden forest again, and quickly made her way through the shrubs and tracks, slowing down only when she felt they were far enough. She looked around, checking if anyone was around.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the very wolf she had been running away from pounced out of some nearby shrubs. '_How can I have not noticed him?!'_ she exclaimed to herself, jumping out of Remus' reach. She wasn't too keen on getting a werewolf bite any time soon, thanks, so better keep one's distances with them. Her hazel eyes glared at the snarling wolf, and she prepared to jump out of his way. But she was knocked off her paws when a deer smashed straight into her, head down. She landed on her back from the surprise of it. '_What's happening with me today?!' _she thought angrily. She wasn't normally this distracted, nor had she ever met the marauders in her panther form before. She was about to get up and make a run for it, but was held down by two black-furred paws over her.

The large black dog was growling and snarling at her, and she did the same back. '_Damn you Sirius! Get off me you damn mutt!_' she thought anxiously. If she was found out she was an animagus by these guys, she just knew her life would become unbearable. Just as she was going to claw at Sirius dog face, an indescribable pain registered on her tail. Small sharp teeth had sunk into it.

Clara roared in anger, and whipped Peter off, making him hit the ground and run behind James' front hooves. Sirius was distracted by this, and looked at Peter, to make sure he was OK, and Clara took this advantage to leave a nice claw mark on Sirius left cheek. Sirius jumped and yelped in pain, giving the time for Clara to run away, but leaving his own claw mark behind her right ear. Clara sprinted back to the school at full speed, thanking that she was a black panther, so that she was covered by the dark and was unseen by the other confused animagi.

She quickly rushed to the dungeons, transforming into her human shape before entering the common room. She quickly tip toed to her room, and changed into her night clothes again as quietly as she could, slipping into bed. Yeah, she was definitely tired now.

Morning

"What happened to you? You look as if you didn't sleep at all!" Severus said, looking highly surprised at the gloomy looking brunette when they met in the common room to have breakfast.

"Oh, thanks for pointing out the obvious. I hardly slept." Clara yawned loudly, following Severus sleepily. Severus had to pull Clara out the way of several other students and statues to avoid her colliding into them, also having to pull Clara round the corners so that she actually went in the right direction to the Grand Hall.

"Hi guys! Oh…Clara, you Ok?" Beatrice asked who was just coming out from breakfast.

"As a matter of fact, no, I feel like shit." Clara snapped.

"Ooh, attitude." Beatrice teased. Clara did nothing more than stick out her tongue at her, and Severus rolled his eyes.

"How mature." He muttered, pulling Clara into the Grand Hall. The brunette flopped into a seat next to the black head, and munched lazily at her cereals. Owls came swooping in and out of the Grand Hall. Suddenly, two packages splashed into Clara's bowl. Clara's face was covered in her cereal's milk, and she wiped her face on her robes.

"Brownie, if I wasn't so tired, I would defeather you in a matter of seconds." Clara threatened her brown barn owl, who looked highly scared and also offended that he had not been congratulated in bringing the parcels to her mistress. "Yes, yes, good bird. Sorry, I'm just really tired. Here." Clara passed Brownie a small plate of bacon and sausages, and a glass of pumpkin juice. The owl hoed in gratitude, ate his meal, received a couple of nice strokes from Clara, gave his mistress' hand a friendly rubbing of the head, and flew off.

"I still don't understand why you call it 'Brownie'. What a lack of imagination." Severus commented flatly.

"So mean! I told you countless of times that 'Brownie' is a type of chocolate cake in the muggle world, and that's why I named him 'Brownie'!" Clara said indignantly. Severus huffed.

"You and your obsession with food will never stop to amaze me." He said in between sips of his pumpkin juice. Clara pouted, and turned her attention to her soaked parcels.

"I wonder who could've sent me anything…it's not any special occasion or anything…" Clara said curiously, opening her first parcel, which was about the size of a ring box. "Oh! It's from Mum and Dad!" She read the letter to herself.

'_Congratulations on finishing you OWLs, sweetheart! We'll definitely celebrate this once you get back!_ _Here is a little present, we hope you like them. Why not invite your Severus or Beatrice for a small part of the holidays?_

_Lots of love,_

_Mum and Dad.'_

"Mum and Dad ask if you'd like to come over for the holidays." Clara told Severus. "Yeah, why don't you? I'm sure we'll be able to go into the forest or something." Severus looked at her.

"I'll consider it." He said dryly.

"Man…so cold. Well anyway, they gave me earrings! Look! They're small black and blue stones in the shape of panther heads!" Clara showed Severus said objects, which were completely black, except for the two blue stones that represent the eyes and nose. Severus didn't even look vaguely interested. "Tsch, whatever…" she put the earrings on, and opened her second parcel. There was also a letter in it.

'_Dear Clara,_

_I want to congratulate you on finishing your OWLs. I'm confident that you will reach the families expectancies. This is just a small gift which I thought would suit you well. I'll see you over the holidays, Narcissa, Bellatrix and I will visit you soon._

_Best wishes,_

_Lucius.'_

Clara grinned happily. This was definitely Lucius' handwriting, and she was happy he actually remembered that she had finished her OWLs. She opened the box and in it she found a locket. It was a silver white sort of colour in the shape of a droplet of water, and had the initials 'C.d.R' on it, written in green. There were no pictures in the locket, so Clara had the choice to put whatever picture she wanted in it. Clara grinned and put the locket on. This time, however, Severus looked at the locket, his face hinting his interest.

"It's in the Slytherin colours, and seems to be made of pure silver. It is very elegant." Severus said, giving a small nod. Clara grinned widely.

"Aw, thanks Severus! I think so too. I'm so glad Lucius gave it to me." Clara said happily, all hint of sleepiness vanishing in an instance.

"You really like him, don't you?" Severus said bluntly, making Clara blush a bright red.

"Well…eh, yes. But he's going to marry Narcissa Black." Clara replied quietly, obviously embarrassed.

"Sirius Black's cousin?" Severus asked, interested in the topic for once. Clara nodded.

"Yeah, mum and dad would have liked me to marry Lucius or Arthur, but Arthur married Molly, and they already have a kid, I think…" Clara said thoughtfully. "I'd quite like our family to stare pureblood, since we are one of the last pureblood families, but there aren't many purebloods around anymore…"

"You sound like a business woman. All in due time anyway, we've still got two years at Hogwarts, so you'll have time to find someone. Who knows, you could marry Black's younger brother." Severus said flatly.

"Ahahaha, no thanks. I don't really want to marry anybody related to that son of a…uhum, anyway…I don't really mind honestly, I just want to have kids…" Clara said, still blushing a little.

"Uhuh…hey, what happened to your neck?" Severus pointed behind Clara's right ear.

"What do you mean? Ouch!" Clara had reached to touch her neck, and remembered that that was the place where Sirius had scratched her earlier on. "Ow…I have no idea…" she lied. Severus obviously looked unconvinced, but didn't push the matter on.

"You should go get that treated." He said plainly, finishing his breakfast and standing up. "Come on, we've still have lessons, so we shouldn't slack off even though we've finished our OWLs."

"Ah! Wait!" Clara stuffed the letters into her robes' pocket, and quickly scrambled after Severus. On the way back to the Slytherin common room, Clara, who had been doing her best to avoid him, was stopped by Professor Slughorn, who was also looking for Severus.

"Oh, hello there Clara, Severus! Can I please talk to you for a second?" he asked joyfully. Severus nodded stiffly, while Clara forced a smile, nodding as well. "I am organising a small party for my favourite students, and I would like both of you to attend it. Lily Evans will be attending as well, I'm sure you know her."

Severus looked as if he had never known her, but Clara knew the truth, and she nodded. "Good, Beatrice will also join us, as well as a few others. Tomorrow, at six o'clock, alright? Oh, and Clara, could I talk to you for another second? If that's alright with you Severus…" Severus nodded, and left, Clara feeling she'd rather fight a dragon than talk to Slughorn on her own. "I was wondering, are you thinking of becoming an Auror?" Clara nodded.

"Or a healer." She added.

"Of course, of course, your parents were amazing students, and very successful in their careers, but that is to be expected from the Rambures family, of course." He started. Clara had a crooked smile on her face.

'_What's with people and saying that? I mean, sure, we're wealthy and stuff, but we're completely normal, if not, just a little smarter than the average person, but then again, so is Beatrice's family, so I don't see what the big deal is. Apart from the fact that my family has always been high up in the Ministry of Magic, I don't understand why Slughorn's making such a big fuss about it…_' Clara thought irritably in her mind.

"But anyway, if you want, I can make appointments with some very important people, it could be good to start off your career, you know, the more famous people you know, the more you'll achieve." He gave a loud laugh, and Clara forced a chuckle. "If you are interested, please tell me. Well, I'll be seeing you in Potions!" he walked off, his bulging stomach wobbling as he left. Clara let out a loud sigh of relief.

"Enjoying the attention are we, Rambo?" said a teasing voice. Clara turned to face James, accompanied by his usual escort of Sirius, Lupin and Peter.

"You know what? Shove off." Clara replied coldly. James laughed, and approached her.

"You and your famous family. Wonder why anybody bothers. You must think you're so high and mighty, don't you?" James said bluntly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, do I look like you? Or are talking to yourself? You know,talking to yourself is one of the first signs of madness, but then again, you're as batty as they come." Clara pointed out flatly. James growled, and was about to answer, when Sirius gasped.

"Rambo, what happened to your neck?" he said darkly, obviously furious. Lupin looked terrified, and Peter was goggling at the wound on her neck, while James growled.

"None of your business! My cat scratched me this morning, OK?!" Clara replied fiercely using her right hand to cover the wound, which she knew was just making her look more suspicious.

"Oh really?" Sirius said, obviously not convinced. "Those claw marks look too big for a cat, don't you think?" He stepped in front of her before she could make a run for it, and pushed her against a wall.

"Yeah? Well, what about yourself?! Don't tell me your owl decided to attack you this morning!" Clara said heatedly, pointing to the scratch on Sirius' face, which had been treated, which she knew she had caused herself.

"Why don't you tell me? What were you doing last night? Prowling about, trying to find out what we do? Don't lie, you are obviously that panther from last night." Sirius whispered darkly, so not to be heard. Clara was about to answer, when she realised just how close Sirius was to her. He had both hands on her shoulder and their faces where barely two inches apart. Her face flushed up into a scarlet colour.

"T-TOO CLOSE IDIOT!" she yelled, head butting Sirius. He staggered backwards, but again, before she could get away, James had caught hold of her right arm, and Lupin of her left arm. "Get off of me, you wannabe wizards!" she struggled, but even for Clara, four vs one was too much. "OK, OK, so yeah I'm an animagus, big deal, and yeah, I've been following you guys ever since I became one, but no, I was going to tell on you, because I know the headmaster knows Lupin is a werewolf, so it wouldn't bring me anything anyway, and if I told the teacher you guys were animagi, then they'd realise I'm also an animagus, and I'd get told off too, so NOW WILL YOU PLEASE LET ME GO ALREADY!" Clara said all of this without breathing and a top speed so that Remus and James had to let go of her, for they had no reason to keep her captive. "What I want to know, is why you attacked me in the first place." She said coldly, rubbing her arms.

"Have you ever seen a panther with electric blue stripes?" Sirius growled, rubbing his forehead. "And dude, you got a hard head." Clara blushed.

"Oh, shut up pervert!" she marched off, leaving a stuttering Sirius.

'_Few, that was close…waaaaaaay to close for comfort…but I don't think it matters if they know or not in the end…but I'm kinda worrying about this…' _Clara thought nervously as she entered her dorm.


	3. Problemo

Bad Dog!

Chapter 3: Problemo

The last day before everybody went home, Clara was stressing out. Packing had always been a big difficulty for her, and after twenty minutes of useless fighting and struggling to fit everything in her case, she gave up, and used magic to fold everything neatly and such. Clara was really looking forward to the holidays, for both Beatrice and Severus were going to spend the first week of the vacation at her house. Clara lived in the countryside of the Midlands, in a place where there was a large forest where she liked to go for walks and look at the animals. There were a lot of muggles in the area, but she enjoyed it. She had always been around muggles, and even though she never talked to them, she liked how everything they did was both fun and easy to use.

'_I don't understand why we can't have some things the muggles use in the wizard world. I mean, that coffee-machine thingy is amazing! And all the foods! As well as those little parks where there are loads of swingy things the children play on!'_

While Clara kept on smiling happily at her muggle-loving thoughts, her cat, Marie, meowed from the bed. Marie was a black and white cat, which Clara had had since she was five, so she meant a lot to Clara. Marie rubbed her head against the bed's covers, obviously asking for attention. Clara closed her case's lid, and sat on her bed. At once, Marie jumped unto her lap, and settled down upon it as if Clara were some cosy pillow. The latter stroked her cat happily, the black and white creature purring loudly like a tractor.

"Clara, what are you doing for the holidays?" asked one of Clara's roommates. "I'm going to Switzerland, there's a special wizard village in the mountains, with lots of chalets and stuff! Oh, it's going to be wonderful~" she squealed happily at the thought.

"That's nice! My grandparents live in Switzerland! I'll be going home, Beatrice and Severus are coming over too, and Lucius, Bellatrix and Narcissa, so I won't be lonely!" Clara said happily. Clara had on siblings, even though she would have liked to, but her mother couldn't have any more children after she had been in an accident, so Clara remained only child. Not that she mind, Clara loved her parents to bits, and would do anything for them.

"That's nice. Hey, you like Severus a lot, don't you? Are you two going out or something?" the girl asked, faking sweet innocence.

Clara's cheeks burnt up with embarrassment. "No! We're good friends and that's all! I mean, Severus isn't that type of guy who would want to go out with someone, and plus, I'm just interested in having a boyfriend at the moment." Clara said quickly. The girl laughed, and continued talking about other stuff.

"Oh, and don't you think Sirius is so dreamy?" The girl said with faraway eyes. Clara, who had been trying to reach a book from under her bed, had grabbed it, and had jumped in shock, banging her head underneath the bed.

"Ow! What?!" she exclaimed. "But he's a Gryffindor!" the girl giggled and sighed.

"I know, but he's still so wonderful looking." She said with a dreamy look. Clara cringed at the thought of the black haired boy who she hated so much. She got out from under the bed, and put her book into her case, and smacked the lid shut, causing the girl to jump in sudden surprise.

"Well, I think he's a completely arrogant little jerk, if you ask me." Clara huffed dryly, walking to the common room. The common room was fairly empty, except for Severus and Regulus Black, Sirius' younger brother. "Hey guys, what you up to?" Clara sat on an armchair next to them.

"Nothing much, just going over our holiday details." Regulus shrugged. "So Severus is going to your house?"

"Yup. Are you going home?" Clara asked. Regulus nodded. "Hm. What about Sirius?" Regulus' face darkened.

"He's staying at Potter's." he said darkly.

"Typical." Clara muttered, Severus nodding in agreement. "Anyways…can't believe everybody's going 'Oh Potter's so this', and 'Oh Sirius' so that'. People are even going all dreamy for Lupin, and a couple even for Pettigrew. So ridiculous." Clara said angrily, not seeing what was so great about that handful of twits.

"It's a mystery on how they are completely irresponsible and still get fan girls following them everywhere they go." Snape said flatly, but Clara could tell he'd jinx Potter if he could.

"Yeah…anyway, Lucius will be coming! I think he'll propose to Narcissa, 'bout time too." Clara said happily, though she was a little upset. Severus and Regulus noticed this. "What?"

"Don't be upset, he's too old for you." Regulus said flatly. Clara pouted childly.

"He's not! My grandparent are ten years apart in age!" She answered indignantly. Regulus shrugged, and muttered something about 'special cases'. Clara ignored this and looked to one of the windows, and only showed the inside of the lake, where she could just about see the far off shape of the Giant Squid. Clara stretched. "Well, anyway, I'm going to see what Beatrice is up to. See you later." Clara walked out the Slytherin common room, walking towards Ravenclaw. She decided to make a detour by going outside, for it was a really nice day, and sunshine was fairly rare in England, she thought. As she walked outside, she saw Lily Evans, yelling at James Potter to leave her alone. Clara stopped and watched the little scene.

Eventually, Evans marched away from Potter, towards where Clara was standing. "He's annoying, isn't he?" Clara said as she passed. Evans jumped, and looked at her, noticing her Slytherin badge.

"Well, yes he is, what's it to you?" She asked suspiciously. Clara smiled sweetly, she had nothing against Lily, she actually thought she was a nice girl, even though she sat at the opposite end of the room from her in potions.

"Oh, nothing, it's just I also find him annoying." Clara said sympathetically. Evans seemed to relax a little.

"Oh, right. You're Clara de R…Ramb…thingy. Sorry, I can't say your last name." Evans said, flushing a little from embarrassment. Clara chuckled.

"Don't worry, not many can, just call me Clara."

"OK, I'm Lily Evans."

"I know, I doubt there's a single soul in Hogwarts who doesn't know who you are, and I'm not flattering." Clara said kindly. Lily Evans smiled at her.

"You're really nice, I thought most Slytherins hated Gryffindors." Lily said. Clara knew many thought this, also thinking all Slytherins were all dark wizards who hated everybody and where arrogant.

"An easy mistake." Clara said simply, shrugging. "Hey, where are you going for the holidays?" Clara asked as they re-entered the school, walking through the corridors.

"Home. I'm muggle born, so I go home to my parents and sister." Lily explained. "But my sister is scared of me. I don't think she likes me." Lily said sadly. Clara noticed this, and smiled reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll get over it." Clara said pleasantly. "I'm going home, and Severus, I know you know him, and my Ravenclaw friend Beatrice, yeah, the ginger one, are coming to my house for a week, as well as some other family members." Lily and Clara talked for a while, about this and that, generally cursing Potter and making up funny stories of what jinxes they could use on him. "Well, I'll be seeing you round then." Lily nodded, and said goodbye to Clara, who had seen Beatrice on the way to the Gryffindor tapestry, and walked back to the Slytherin dungeons.

'_Yay, I've made another friend!' _Clara congratulated herself.

Next day

Severus, Regulus, Clara and Beatrice where all on the Hogwarts express, the girls chatting and laughing, while eating chocolate frogs, Regulus was reading some book, and Severus was looking out the window.

"Oi, losers. Oh, her Beatrice, what're you doing here?" Sirius asked, surprised to see the bubbly ginger among the glaring Slytherins.

"These 'losers' as you call them, happen to be my friends." Beatrice retorted cheerfully.

"Ok then, Regulus, you can tell the parents I'll be staying the whole vacation at James'." Sirius ordered his brother, who just rolled his eyes and continued reading.

"Why don't you just move there? You go to Potter's 100% of the time, so why don't you just get out the house?" Regulus asked flatly.

"Oh shudup. Rambo, I need to talk to you." he said pointing to Clara. Said girl just glared at him. "Come on, just for a sec." Clara sighed irritably.

"If it'll make you go away." She murmured, following Sirius to a more secluded section of the train, where there weren't many students. "What?" she asked.

"Beatrice told me about your sorting." Black said flatly, but he was obviously looking at her in high interested. "Why d'you want to be a Slytherin?"

"Excuse me? Since when do you care?" Clara asked, infuriated that Beatrice had told him. "I wanted to go into Slytherin because a family who I look up to was in Slytherin. Oh, please, don't start saying how I'm such an idiot and that I should've chose Gryffindor instead. Being in Gryffindor would mean spending more time with you four idiots."

"Hurtful." Sirius said dramatically. "But that's not all. Why do you always defend Severus? You know he's not the nicest person either." Clara snorted.

"So? He's still human, and still feels emotions. And anyway, friends stand up for each other. Severus and I just get along well, and I want to keep as many people as I can close to me. Also, Severus IS a nice person, you just don't know him well enough, nor try to!"

"Point taken, but what do you think of us? The marauders?" Sirius asked, a cocky smirk on his lips.

"I think you're a handful of annoying twats who act like a bunch of spoilt brats and are the lowest lowlife of the whole Galaxy." Clara said flatly. "And you have no kindness in you for others who don't think you are almighty and amazing."

"Well, look who's a hypocrite. No, just listen." Sirius said at Clara's angry expression. "You say we shouldn't judge your beloved Severus 'cause we don't know him well enough, but aren't you doing the same to us? James and I heard Lily talk to some of her friends on how nice you are; and everybody knows that when Lily likes somebody that she'll even say how nice they are, they are a really nice person. So, us marauders thought we would give you a chance, and try to see what Lily sees is so great about you." He finished. Clara was absolutely gob smacked.

"Say what? I don't recall ever asking to become friends with you. In all honesty, I'd rather see what you guys think are so great about yourselves. And anyway, I have my own friends, thank you very much." Clara said, trying to side step around Sirius.

"Come on, Clara, don't be like that." Sirius said, smiling at her. SMILING. Clara could help but think he had a very nice smile indeed. "I know we do act a bit stupid and that we do go overboard sometimes, but we're not evil guys either. We just want to get to know you better."

"More like, POTTER wants to get to know me better, so that he can become so called 'friends' with me, and get closer to Lily, right?" Clara said, completely crushing Sirius' smile. "I'm not stupid enough to believe you would suddenly care for me. Good bye, jerk." Clara finally side stepped around Sirius, and walked away.

"Hey, wait! Clara!" Sirius said grabbing her wrist. Clara was walking rather fast, and the train suddenly shook a little too hard, and since Sirius was pulling her to stop her, she fell over…onto Sirius.

Clara didn't hurt herself, her fall being cushioned by Sirius, but only looked at the boy underneath her in horror, while Sirius actually seemed quite please. Their lips were touching.

'_FUCK! THIS ISN'T HAPPENIG!' _Clara screamed, and tried pull away, but Sirius was holding the back of her head, and Clara couldn't move. She glared at Black underneath her, who was actually smirking.

"Oooh, aren't things getting heated up here?" came Potter's voice from above them. Clara finally found the strength to punch Sirius in the stomach and pulled away, falling again unto her rear end.

"You…you…" Clara stuttered at Sirius content expression. "What was that for, you pervy hairball?!" she yelled. Potter was grinning widely.

"I wasn't joking when I said I wanted to get to know you better, y'know." Sirius said proudly. It sounded like he had planned this, but he somehow looked a little surprised, so that idea was ruled out.

"And you!" Clara yelled at James. "You want to use me to get closer to Lily, don't you?!" James gave a 'no idea what're you talkin' about, mate' look, but it was obvious he did want to use Clara in such a way.

"Hey, Clara, will you go out with me?" Sirius asked suddenly, making Clara blush a bright red.

"Y-what? Wait, NO!" she yelled at his face, standing up and running back to her friends. She quickly slid the door open, and slammed it shut. She dropped down unto the seat next to Beatrice's, who looked like she knew exactly what happened. "You-you knew about this!"

"No idea what you mean, Clara dear." The ginger said innocently. Clara huffed, and ignored the boys' questioning looks. What Clara was worried about, wasn't that she had had her first kiss stolen by Sirius, or that Potter was trying to use her, or that Sirius wanted to go out with her, but that she almost said 'yes'.

'_This is definitely gonna be a problem…_' Clara thought anxiously.


	4. Never mind

Bad Dog!

Chapter 4: Never mind…

Clara was happier than she could ever be. She had her two best friends staying at her house, along with three of her closest family members, had no work, and didn't have to see those four idiots for two whole months! It was like a dream.

But all dreams end, unfortunately. It had been the fifth day into the holidays, during breakfast. Clara had had a terrible dream. She had been Sirius' girlfriend. During breakfast, the scenes' of the dream played over and over in her head. Hugging, laughing, kissing…ew...and being around the marauders all of the time, and never seeing any of her current friends. A dark cloud of gloom was surrounding Clara, and everybody looked at her, incredibly shocked.

"Had a bad dream?" Lucius asked her. Clara nodded. "What about?" Silence. Clara didn't want to answer. Instead she put her elbows on the table and hid her face in her hands. "That bad?" Clara nodded again.

"Terrible…horrible…worst thing ever." She muttered. Beatrice rolled her eyes.

"I'm taking a guess and saying that it must be about the marauders." She said flatly, causing Bellatrix to snigger.

"What? Potter's lot? Seriously? You scared of them or something?" she teased, eating her food. Clara faked a laugh.

"No. But they are SO annoying. Always bullying anybody who doesn't bow down to them and that bas-" she started, but was stopped when she caught her mother's eye from the kitchen. "Um…I meant, and that Sirius Black, who thinks he's all mighty and powerful. He's the worst."

Bellatrix nodded in agreement. She never had like her cousin, nor had Narcissa, but the latter remained neutral on this. Lucius only smirked. "You know, there's a saying that dreams are where hidden desires surface…" Clara choked on her milk, coughing.

"'S'cuse me, am I hearing what I think you said?" Clara said, coughing a little.

"I don't know, are you?" Lucius pretended sweet innocence. Clara huffed.

"Hidden desires? Seriously? Cause I totally wanna go out with Black." The words left her mouth before she could say anything. Narcissa looked wide eyed at her, Bellatrix and Lucius where smothering sniggers, while Severus was holding his fork so hard his knuckles where turning white.

"HA! I knew it! I told you a thousand times that you fancied him!" Beatrice exclaimed proudly. Clara turned a bright crimson.

"Being quiet! And anyway, it's just a dream! I do not want to get in any kind of relationship with any of those four, much less Black! Um…Severus…?" Clara looked worriedly at Severus, who was staring at her with a very stern look.

"What happened on the train? You still haven't told us what happened." He asked flatly. Clara's throat went dry, and her mind went fuzzy, her cheeks heating up even more. "The truth, Clara." The named girl gulped.

"H-He just talked to me…and Potter arrived, so I insulted both of them and left." She said, hiding part of what actually happened. Severus looked completely unconvinced, Beatrice and Bellatrix looked like a couple of fan girls who were about to hear their idol's biggest secret (Even though Beatrice already knew what happened), Narcissa was simply listening finishing her meal, and Lucius had a knowing smile.

"The whole truth." Severus asked seriously. Clara shrunk under his look. Man…He could be scary when he wanted to be.

"Eh…well." Clara told them what had happened, looking at her hands. At the end, Bellatrix had fallen off her chair, laughing madly, while Narcissa tuterred at her sister's actions, Beatrice squealing happily, Severus looking like he had just got slapped. Lucius was the only one who was smiling lightly.

"So I was right. Dreams do surface hidden desires." He said, more to himself.

"Not true! It was an accident, and he was obviously joking! He just wants to use me; well Potter does at least, so that he can get closer to Lily Evans!" Clara said indignantly. Beatrice giggled in a sort of 'so naïve' way. "What? Got a problem?" Clara said fiercely.

"No, just that you are the most naïve person I've ever met." Beatrice said cheerfully, Clara looking at her with fiery eyes. "You are so late on the school's talk, Clara. Everybody knows Sirius has had a crush on you since the third year." Clara growled.

"That is such a lie! You planned with him for that to happen, and now my life's gonna be hell because of that!" she yelled, far too embarrassed, and got up marching out of her room. "I'm going for a walk! And don't any of you dare follow me!" she yelled, slamming the front door shut.

Clara walked into the large forest, walking through the well-known path she often walked when she needed to cool down. She looked round at the beautiful scenery, and took in a deep breath. Clara walked about for about half an hour, till she arrived to the place where all the muggles went on their little swingy things, or had coffee and stuff. Little children and their parents were laughing and joking about, sliding down slides and playing in their little park things. Clara sat down on a stump, and watched them all, day dreaming at the same time. It was all so…relaxing, and actually made her feel better.

"I was hoping you'd come here sooner or later on your own." Said a voice that Clara knew too well. She jolted up, standing so quietly she almost fell forwards, and wheeled round, looking at Sirius' smirking face.

"Why are you here?! What do you want?!" Clara yelled, gaining the attention from a few people. "How do you know I live here?!"

"I have my sources." Sirius said cockily. "And I don't believe our conversation from the train was fully finished."

"Sources, my ass! You mean Beatrice don't you!?" Clara hissed at him angrily, and by Sirius guilty smile, she knew she had hit bull's eye. "And what do you mean 'not fully finished'?"

"I mean this." Sirius said, smirking widely. Before Clara could register what was happening, Sirius was kissing him. She struggled out of the animagus' grip, but being taller and stronger, Sirius kept her in place. Clara was seriously trying to pull away from Sirius, but after a while, she guessed there was no point. Clara heard a couple of wolf whistles. Sirius pulled away from her.

"D'you mind?!" he barked at a couple of thirteen year old muggles, who quickly scurried off. He turned to Clara, who felt as if she had been hit on the forehead. "So, I'll ask again: will you go out with me? And I don't mean as a joke." He grinned widely. Clara stared at him flatly with a hint of annoyance.

"On one condition." Clara said. Sirius looked nervously at her. "Don't kiss me in public." Sirius looked a little thunder struck, then realised the simple request and laughed loudly. Clara sighed, but smiled lightly.

'_Oh well…so much for it being a 'dream'.'_


	5. Last bit of innocence

Bad Dog

Chapter 5: Last bit of innocence

Clara looked happily at her NEWT results. She had achieved everything with an 'O', which was more than she had ever dreamed of. This meant she could start learning to become an Auror, which pleased her greatly.

"How d'you do?" Sirius asked, looking over her shoulder. "Hmph, it's to be expected from you though." Clara chuckled, and kissed him on the cheek.

"You did well too." She reminded him. Clara had now left Hogwarts, receiving her NEWT results. Sirius and had been going out ever since that time in the forest, most to Severus' anger. Severus, Regulus and Beatrice where still Clara's friends, but now she had become close friends with James, Remus and Lupin, as well as a few others from Gryffindor. Even though she kept receiving warnings from Severus at first, Clara believed that becoming Sirius' girlfriend had been the best choice of her life. Not much had happened during the last two years, apart from the fact that Lily and James had been going out since a while now (Beatrice almost fainted in happiness when she heard that), and Severus' obsession with Dark Magic had increased, which worried Clara tremendously.

"Yeah, I guess." Sirius grinned. Clara smiled back. Sirius now had his own place, and Clara had moved in with him, which was nice. But currently, Clara and her friends had been fighting against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but she didn't know much, because she had too busy with other things. "I'm more worried about Voldemort. People are dying and being claimed missing every day."

"Yeah…it's been worrying me too. Ever since the end of school, I haven't heard from either Lucius or Severus, good thing your brother is protected in Hogwarts." Clara said, her voice filled with concern. Sirius nodded, but didn't seem too bothered. "Oh, come on, will you stop acting like a toddler and grow up? All that stuff with your family is gone and dealt with, so why not forgive them, or at least say sorry?" Clara said with a large grin, pinching Sirius' cheek.

"Oh, sure, I'll just march to their front door, and say ''Sup, dudes? We've hated each other for ages, but let's forget about that and make up, 'kay?' Yeah, cause that'll totally work." Sirius huffed. Clara left it at that, and continued going through any mail.

"There's a letter from James and Lily. I hope it'll be their wedding invitation, these two are just made for each other once Lily actually opened up to James." Clara said, opening the letter. She sighed. "Nope, just a letter from James alone pleading help on what decision he should make. Here, you're his best pal, and I'm sure you'll know what to do."

"What? Do I look like a love matcher or something?" Sirius said from the sofa. Clara rolled her eyes, and put the letter on his face. "OK, OK, I'll help him…but totally not my field. Or are you trying to hint at me that you want me to ask you the question?" Sirius raised an eyebrow. Clara blushed a little, but remembered Severus' words.

"All in due time, Sirius." She said simply, reading a letter from Remus. "Remus can't get a job cause everybody sacred of werewolves. Idiots, Remus is super nice, and wouldn't dream hurting anybody if he could help it. He should ask Dumbledore to become a teacher in Hogwarts." Sirius only nodded in agreement. "What's wrong?"

"I think we join the Order of the Phoenix." Sirius said. Clara looked at Sirius, and he had a deadly serious expression.

"The organisation Dumbledore created to fight against Voldemort?" Clara asked. Sirius nodded. "Yeah, I think we should too. Beatrice was talking to me about it. Apparently, Alice and Frank have already joined it." Sirius nodded.

"And I think James and Lily should marry as soon as possible; we don't know whether all of us will make it to see the end of Voldemort." Sirius said, not joking. Clara nodded, and said nothing more.

Time skip

There was laughter, happiness and joy in the air. James' and Lily's wedding had been the only big celebration since Alice's and Frank's wedding, creating happiness everywhere. At the wedding, Sirius was the best man, much to his joy. The whole of the Order of the Phoenix, which Clara, Sirius and Beatrice had joined shortly after Clara and Sirius' conversation, attended the wedding, as well for some other friends who knew nothing of the Order of the Phoenix. Hundreds of pictures were taken, camera's flashing wildly.

Clara had now become a newbie Auror, much to her pleasure, and often worked with Frank and Alice. Beatrice was also an Auror, and they often worked together as well. Times where busy, and Clara was even more worried. It had been found out that Regulus was a Death Eater, as well as Lucius and Severus, much to Clara's sorrow. After the wedding, Clara talked to Sirius.

"Sirius, I'll be staying at my parents' home tonight, if that's OK." Clara said to Sirius, who nodded, smiling brightly, and gave each other a chaste kiss. Clara walked back to her parents' home with Molly and Arthur Weasley, along with their five boys. The new born twins, Fred and George, where sleeping quietly for once, Molly holding the younger twin, and Clara the older twin, while Arthur carried Percy, who was also fast asleep. Bill and Charlie held their parents' hands as they got nearer to their destination. Clara was the god mother of the twins, which pleased her very much.

When they arrived, the lights where out, for her parents where still working. Her house elf, Zwinky, met them at the front door. "Hello, Zwinky. Can you please prepare two guest rooms?" she asked her house elf, who was wearing a clean pillow case.

"Certainly, young mistress." Said the elf as she went to prepare the rooms.

"You're so kind Clara, for letting us stay here. The journey would be too much for all of us at night." Arthur thanked, but Clara shook her head.

"Not at all, we're family, and we stand up for each other." Clara smiled. She was the type of person who believed such things, and kept to them, depending on the scene though. After putting the children to sleep and saying good night to Arthur and Molly, she went to her own room to change to her working robes, for she had to work tonight.

Leaving the house, Clara informed Zwinky that if she wasn't back before eight o'clock tomorrow morning, to tell Sirius. Clara Apparated to where she would be checking out for any Death Eaters that night, swapping guard with Beatrice. When she didn't see her anywhere, she grew a little worried, and took out her wand, walking slowly and carefully.

"Took you long enough." Said a drawling voice. Clara faced where the voice came from, and even though he was wearing a Death Eater mask, Clara could tell it was Lucius. But that's not what caused to gasp. Beatrice had been knocked out cold, a patch of blood on the side of her head and seemed paler than usual.

"Lucius! What-" Clara started, but was interrupted by the white-blond haired man.

"She's not dead, just unconscious." He said flatly and uncaring. Clara looked at him in fear. He was so different, he wasn't the Lucius she looked up to, but a cold blooded creature. "But we can quickly change that. _Crucius_!" Beatrice screamed out in pain, twisting in agony.

"Stop! Stop it, Lucius!" Clara cried out, pointing her wand at Lucius, her hand shaking. She didn't want to hurt him. She really didn't, but there were some things that couldn't be avoided. Behind Lucius, she saw the very familiar face of her closest friends. "Severus…" she said, almost pleading, as if Severus was on her side. But Severus was looking at her coldly with a straight face. Beatrice let out a final scream before the spell was lifted from her, where she moaned in pain and tried to catch her breath. Clara thought things carefully in her mind. How could she save Beatrice without getting her killed? Clara got an idea, and gulped. '_I hope this works._'

Clara took a deep breath through her nose, and glared at both Lucius and Severus. "_Incendio_!" she yelled loudly. Immediately, flames were conjured from her wand at Lucius, making him dodge, and making a fence blow up in flamed instead. Clara rushed ti Beatrice. "Zwinky, come here, quickly!" she ordered. With a _snap _her house elf appeared. "Zwinky! Take Beatrice and Apparate back home, then wake Arthur and Molly up! Tell them it was Lucius that hurt her! Hurry!" Zwinky took hold of Beatrice's wrist, and with another s_nap _disappeared.

Clara quickly lifted her wand to the sky, hoping that Lucius and Severus were still confused from the blast. "_Expecto Patronum!" _she said loudly, thinking of Sirius as a white light gushing out of her hand immediately. It was the shape of a large black dog. It represented Sirius' patronus, which was the same as his animagus form. It used to be a panther, but changed soon after she became his girlfriend.

As soon as her patronus had run off towards wherever Sirius was, Clara ducked to dodge a spell from Lucius. Clara stood up, quickly attacking Lucius, and protecting herself. Where was Severus? She looked around quickly, not seeing him. She quickly ran into an open space on the small village she had been supposed to protect. Severus was in the middle, and she quickly protected herself from an _Expelliarmus _spell. She suddenly felt something hit the back of her head, hard. The world swam in front of her as she fell forwards, landing on the painful gravel. She could see Lucius' blurry shape as Severus Apparated away from the spot. Clara could hear another person's voice.

"She's weak, so she won't be able to fight it." Said Bellatrix's voice. It was cold, and mocking, without any form of the cheerfulness Clara had known her with.

"_Imperio_!" yelled Lucius. Clara felt herself lose control of her body, and a voice saying loudly in her head '_Follow Lucius, obey him._'

'_No…no…Sirius…_' Clara thought helplessly, her body numbing, but the effect from being hit still affecting her. Even Clara couldn't feel it, she knew she must have been crying. Why did all the people she had looked up to become like this? She couldn't help but remember all the fun times they had had together.

"CLARA!" yelled an all too familiar voice.

'_Sirius…_' she thought, before hearing the voice saying '_Apparate. Apparate to Malfoy Manor._' Feeling herself do so against her own will, she saw the failed attempts of Remus and Sirius to stop Lucius and Bellatrix. Darkness over took Clara.


	6. The Controlling curse

Bad Dog!

Chapter 6: The Controlling Curse

Clara hated this. She couldn't move on her own accord, and everything she did made her feel sick. She was being ordered to kill people, to use the _Crucio _curse and stuff that Clara would never do. She never saw any of her friends, and was always following Lucius. Clara knew that if she had power over her own body, she would have been crying all the time. Bellatrix had become an evil inhuman woman, Narcissa had become cold and far too prideful, and Lucius had become a cowardly, yet merciless man, who would do whatever had to be done to please Lord Voldemort. And Severus? Clara never saw him. Regulus? Even less.

Clara hated this. She wished she could go back in time and relive the times when they were all talking innocently about Clara's dream at breakfast. But even then, had they all, apart from Beatrice and herself, already been Death Eaters?

Clara had no sense of time, and nobody seemed to talk about dates, or years, so every day was just another day where she was being used. But, at one point, Narcissa smiled happily to Lucius, which really reminded Clara of how she used to look, and made the brunette feel even more upset. She whispered something Lucius, and he smiled happily, hugging her closely. Bellatrix also looked highly proud of her sister, and when Lucius' friends Crabbe and Goyle asked him why he was so happy, Lucius replied that Narcissa was pregnant.

For a short moment Clara felt extremely happy, and wished, above anything, to have been able to congratulate them. But then saddened when she realised in what sort of life their child will be born into.

A while after that, she heard Bellatrix and her husband, Rodolphus Lestrange, informing Lucius and Narcissa that Alice Longbottom, Lily Potter and Molly Weasley were also pregnant, meaning they wouldn't be able to fight in the upcoming months, like Narcissa, so it would be easier to fight the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix.

Clara wanted to cry, partially because she was happy for three of her closest friends, and also because the children were to be born into a horrible time of history. But, she thought, if they are all to attend Hogwarts, then they'll be in the same class; that would be nice.

Apart from that, Clara knew nothing of what was happening, being kept under the _Imperio _curse of both Narcissa and Lucius at the same time, so that the curse was too strong for Clara to fight it, she was forced to just know news from what she heard. The only news apart from the four known pregnancies was that Regulus Black had betrayed the Death Eaters, and had gone missing, but everybody said that Voldemort, known called 'you-know-who' or 'he-who-must-not-be named', had killed him.

Clara was completely crushed from that piece of news. Regulus, one of her first Hogwarts friends, had died. Clara mourned his death, but was glad that he died defying Voldemort. Clara was just glad she never heard her parents' names, or Sirius', or Remus', or Peter's, or James' or Lily's. But still, she wanted to know what had happened to Beatrice, but if she wasn't named, it meant nothing bad could have happened to her, or so Clara hoped.

A very long time after that, Narcissa was around in her 8th month of pregnancy, when one day Bellatrix came charging in, and started speed talking about a prophecy made by a Seer, that said that out of two boys born at the end of July this year, there would be only one who had any possibility of defeating the Dark Lord. Clara feared that it might be Narcissa's child, but was relieved to hear that her child would be born in June, while Molly had already given birth to a sixth son, so the only possibility was Lily's or Alice's children.

Clara mentally gasped, as she could not do so physically, and worried for Lily and Alice. However, in June, Narcissa gave birth to a son. Clara looked at the small child, noting that he had his father's features, plus his hair and eyes colour. Clara thought of the two Weasley twins, of whom she was the godmother, and missed it that she could not see them grow.

As the month of June ended, and July crept on, Clara worried more and more for Lily's and Alice's welfare. She hoped upon hope that they had gone into hiding or something like that. That is exactly what she heard soon after thinking this, much to Bellatrix's anger, causing her to smash a vase.

One day, a year and a half, Clara guessed, she saw Peter Pettigrew. At first, she thought he was under the _Imperio _curse, but realised he wasn't. He told Voldemort that Sirius had been supposed to be the Potters' secret keeper, but that Sirius had advised them to bluff and use him instead, and that he knew that the Potters' now lived in Godric's Hollow. Clara didn't understand, then when Voldemort ordered him to show his mark, Clara realised that Peter had been part of the Death Eaters. Her anger grew immensely, and somehow, was able to fight off the Controlling curse for just a second.

"YOU BLOODY TRAITOR! JAMES AND LILY ARE YOUR FRIENDS!" she screamed as loudly as she could. Lucius snapped towards her, shouting _Imperio_ and Clara lost the amazing feeling of freedom to speak. Peter looked at her in a terrified way, while Voldemort only laughed evilly. Clara saw him approach her, and if she had could, she would've sprinted a mile away from him. Everything about him was terrifying. He looked like a Snake hybrid, something mutated in between a white corpse and a snake. But she held her gaze at his red eyes, frowning angrily at him, even under the Controlling curse.

"My, I am surprised to see you courage, especially for someone who has been under the _Imperio _curse for almost two whole years." He said, his dark voice ringing in Clara's ears. The Death Eaters laughed, but Clara kept on glaring with all her might at the Dark Lord. "Where you in Gryffindor, I wonder? Lucius, you seem to know her well."

"No, my lord, she was in Slytherin. Though the sorting hat did want to put her in Gryffindor, she chose Slytherin." Lucius said, his voice shaking a little, but not too noticeable. This time the Death Eaters made sounds of shock or surprise.

"Slytherin, you say? Is that true, Bellatrix?" Voldemort asked the named woman.

"Yes, milord." She answered eagerly, no hint of fear, but of pure respect.

"I see. You are a very interesting person, I heard that your parents where those two foreigners, the Rambures, if I remember correctly. So you must be Clara Rambures." Voldemort said, a horribly cold smile on his snake like features.

'_It's with a 'de' before the 'Rambures', actually, snake-face!_' Clara thought angrily.

"Such a shame you did not originally chose the dark side, you would've made a great Death Eater, from the achievements I've heard you did." Voldemort said, turning his back on her, and walking back towards Peter. "And you, Pettigrew, you will pass on information from the Potters and Sirius, will you not?" said man nodded quickly. "Good, otherwise, I will have no choice but to kill you, you understand?" Peter squeaked, and nodded again.

Clara was even angrier than before, and was drowned in pure hatred towards Voldemort and wanted to murder Peter so badly, but Lucius must have realised this, because he quietly strengthened the curse. After this, Clara realised that at least the Longbottoms' child was at least safe, but once again, dread filled Clara's heart when he heard Voldemort order the Lestranges, including Rabastan, Rodolphus' brother, and Barty Crouch, who was the son of the current Minister of Magic, Barty Crouch Senior. Clara wanted to stop them, to do something, she wanted Bellatrix to be her fun old self again, not this sadistic snake suck up! Lucius lead her away from there, and they returned to Malfoy Manor, where Narcissa was looking after her son, Draco, who was now one year old.

Clara couldn't believe that in the tranquil manor of the Malfoys, there were people dying all the time.

Later that very evening, Lucius had been doing some sort of dark duty for the Dark Lord during his short absence, when suddenly, all the Death Eaters there at the time, including Lucius, gasped, and checked the marks on their wrists. It had faded almost completely.

"N-No, this can't be! The Dark Lord had disappeared!" One of the Death Eaters said in a despaired voice. And as if on cue, Aurors Apparated out of nowhere, and Clara saw, with a huge flow of relief over her, that Beatrice was among them glaring especially at Lucius.

"YOU BASTARD! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY!" She screamed loudly, sending random spells at Lucius in absolute fury. Somehow, Lucius had to lift the _Imperio _spell to completely protect himself before Disapparating away from their current place. Clara felt a huge weight removed from her shoulders, a sudden , alien feeling of freedom, and after under the controlling curse for so long, immediately fell into darkness as Beatrice caught her to stop falling unto the ground.

When Clara woke up, she didn't recognise where she was. But she noticed lots of ginger heads everywhere. She smiled, and chuckled. "Nice to see you guys too." She said, as she hugged a crying Molly, while Arthur held a one year old baby. "I heard that you had had another son…what's he's name?"

"Ronald." Arthur said quietly, for the child was sleeping. Bill was smiling brightly at her, as well as Charlie, though Percy only smiled shyly. The twins however, even though being barely three years old, pounced unto her.

"Auntie!" they squealed, hugging her. Clara laughed, hugging them, too happy to put in words. It had been so long since she saw such smiling happy bright faces, so innocent. She then remembered.

"Lily…James! What happened to them?!" Clara almost cried out. "Please tell me they're OK!" she begged to Beatrice, who was standing next to Arthur. Beatrice looked sadly at her. "Beatrice! Are they OK?!"

"I-I'm sorry Clara…You-know-who killed them both…" Beatrice said, barely a whisper. Clara couldn't believe it. First Regulus, not Lily and James…

"What about Frank and Alice?! Bellatrix and some others went after them too!" Clara raised her voice in despair.

"They're alive, but…they'll never be the same again…" Beatrice replied, just as quietly as before. "The Lestranges and Barty Crouch Jr tortured them into insanity…they don't even recognise their own son, Neville. Don't worry, Neville's OK, he's being looked after by his grandmother." Even though Clara was still abashed from the news of James' and Lily's death, a little bit of relief was added knowing that, even though they must have suffered terribly, and that Neville will probably never meet the people Clara had known, he would still be able to meet them, unlike-

"Harry! Harry Potter! What about him?!" Clara asked hurriedly. "Please don't tell me Voldemort killed him too!" Everyone flinched at the name, except the twins and Ronald.

"Don't say his name…no, Harry's fine…he's being looked after by Lily's sister and her family. Petunia I think it was…Dumbledore said you had a right to know." Beatrice replied. Clara let out a shaky breath.

"What about Remus? Is he OK?" Beatrice nodded. "And Sirius?" That question made everybody freeze, and looked at Clara in greatest pity. "Don't tell me he's…" Clara's voice broke. Molly slowly shook her head.

"No…Clara…he…he…betrayed Lily and James." Molly said, her voice shaking very badly. Clara gave them terrified looks. "You see…he was Lily's and James' secret keeper, and…and…he told you-know-who where they lived! A-After…_that_ happened, Peter…Peter Pettigrew, tried to duel him…and…Sirius killed him! As well as twelve muggles! The only thing they've found of Peter is…is a little finger!" Molly burst out into tears. Clara was gobsmacked.

"Th-That's a lie! Peter was the one who-!" Clara started.

"Clara!" a voice interrupted her. Clara then realised where she was. She was in a hospital bed, so she was at St Mungo's hospital, and threw the doors, Remus came dashing. "Thank God you're alright!" he said breathlessly, hugging the living daylights out of her.

"R-Remus…can't breathe…" Clara gasped out.

"Sorry." Remus said sheepishly, letting go off Clara. "When Sirius and I saw your patronus, we rushed to you as quickly as we could, but when we saw you Disapparate with Lucius, we knew you must've been under the _Imperio _curse. Sirius didn't sleep for the next three days, convinced that we had to look for you, which we tried, of course, but we honestly couldn't find the slightest trace of you." Remus said.

"Sirius…" Clara said quietly, feeling tears go to her eyes. "Where is he now? How long have I been here for? Are my parents alright?"

"You're parents are safe, don't worry. Your dad was here all the time, so he wasn't in any danger. Your mum, being the amazing Auror she is, had no problem protecting herself and others." Remus said. "They also joined the Order of the Phoenix."

"Since you've fainted, you've been asleep just twelve hours. Last night it was around nine, and it is now half past nine, so we are guessing that's how long you've been asleep." Beatrice answered.

"And Sirius…" Arthur murmured. "Is on his way to Azkaban." Clara jolted at the name, and the two twins looked up at her in innocent concern.

"A-A-Azkaban…?" Clara stuttered. "B-But he wasn't the Potters' secret keeper! It was Peter! He's the one that's been giving information to Vold-, oh alright, you-know-who!" Clara cried out.

Remus shook his head. "Clara, Sirius has been acting strange lately. He even stopped trusting me, I think." Clara gaped at that.

"What? But…but…Sirius took you like his brother! He'd trust even after death!" Clara gasped.

"You know Clara, people we couldn't imagine going to the dark side really did betray us. Sirius being one of them." Beatrice whispered.

"Not you too!" Clara cried out again, tears falling down her cheeks. Everybody that had been close to her had disappeared one way or another. James, Lily and Regulus were dead, Peter had betrayed them, Sirius had gone to Azkaban, and Frank and Alice where to be permanently ill in the worst way possible. She only had Remus and Beatrice left from her school days…

And Lucius, Narcissa and Bellatrix! The three people she looked up to the most! Out of her family members, she only had the Weasleys and her parents now. Clara cried, clinging on to Remus as he hugged her gently.

"It's OK, Clara…no one expected any of this." He said, his own voice shaking a little.


	7. Sacrifice

Bad Dog!

Chapter 7: Sacrifice

Clara left the hospital on the same day she had been released from the controlling curse. Like her father, who had been the one to look after her for the day, had said: 'She's one hell of a tough cookie.' Before going home, though, she went to visit Frank and Alice, and almost burst out crying from how they ended up, feeling that she was to blame for not having been strong enough to stop Bellatrix and the others.

She went home with her father at the end of the day, to be greeted by her tearful mother, who hugged the living daylights out of her. Remus and the Order of the Phoenix were there too, and all welcomed her back enthusiastically, even though the smiles Clara was giving were all empty. After many of them had left, Dumbledore, who had somehow been able to attend this…whatever they called it, 'welcoming party', smiled gently at Clara. The latter felt soothed, and smile sadly back.

"Clara, I thought you ought to know. Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, as well as Barty Crouch Jr, have all been sent to Azkaban." Dumbledore told Clara. The brunette gasped.

"S-So soon?" she squeaked. Dumbledore nodded, and placed a bowl of chocolate ice cream in her hands. Clara looked at it in confusion, and looked back at Dumbledore.

"As I recall you were always rather fond of chocolate ice cream." Dumbledore said with a light chuckle. Clara flushed up and smiled sheepishly.

"Thank you." She said quietly. "…I was wondering, what's happened to Severus?" Her voice broke when she finished her sentence and she felt tears enter her eyes. Dumbledore smiled a little brighter, and only tapped his nose with his index finger. Clara didn't understand what he meant by this, but let it drop. "Lucius? Narcissa?"

"They are having their trial tomorrow. On the subject of trials, Barty Crouch, Senior mind you, has requested that you attend the trial as a witness." Clara looked up in disbelief.

"W-Why?"

"Because he does not have firm evidence that puts the Malfoys into Azkaban. Your testimony will seal their fate." Dumbledore replied. Clara was so dumbstruck that the bowl of chocolate ice cream would've smashed if Dumbledore hadn't caught it at the last second. He waved his wand, and a silver spoon appeared out of nowhere. "You should eat the ice cream before it melts." He gave the spoon to Clara. The brunette ate her ice cream slowly, thinking over what Dumbledore had said, as well as asking him a couple of questions about what had happened over the last few years. During this, the ice cream made her remember the last day of her OWLs examinations, where Sirius had looked so pitiful, and where he had come to thank her for the help during the meal.

'_Sirius…_'

When she had finished the ice cream, only Dumbledore and her parents were left. "Now, before I leave, Clara, may you please escort me to the front door?"

Clara was a little taken back from this strange request, but nodded, giving Zwinky her bowl on the way, smiling at the happily tearful house elf. At the front door, Dumbledore turned to Clara, looking very serious. "Clara, I want you to understand, that Severus was never actually a Death Eater." He said seriously. Clara gaped at him.

"B-But, Professor-!" Clara started, but a slim, wrinkled hand was held up in a silent order to let Dumbledore continue.

"You should stop calling me 'Professor'. Well, as I was saying Severus did receive the Dark Mark from Voldemort, but was actually working for me, and was sending me information from what he heard from the Death Eaters. I am sure you know Regulus died?" Clara nodded quickly tears filling her eyes again. "Yes, well, in the same year, his father died." Clara looked unbelievingly at him, but said nothing. "This was told to me by Severus. Any questions?"

"Two. Why didn't he help Beatrice the night Lucius put the _Imperio _curse on me?"

"Severus had to follow his orders, otherwise he would have been found out."

"And why didn't he help…" Clara's voice broke again, she took a deep breath. "…Lily and James?"

"Severus did not know that Voldemort was planning to kill them, even though he did know that he was planning to kill their child, and is very sorry for their death." Dumbledore answered. "Clara, you must believe me when I say that I put my full trust in Severus."

Clara nodded weakly. "I-If you trust him, then I trust him too." She said, an equally weak voice speaking instead of her usual voice. Dumbledore nodded, smiling once again. He opened the door, and Clara stared at none other than Severus. She had weird mix of emotions, she felt angry at him she hated him, yet, she couldn't helped being over joyed to finally see him, and so happy that he was alright.

"I explained the issue to the Minister of Magic, and Severus has been discharged of any accusations." Dumbledore explained. Clara felt tears run down her cheeks, and did the last thing any of the three of them would have expected Clara to do. She hugged Severus like her life depended on it. It was obvious Severus felt completely out of place, but still did the most as to lay a hand on her shoulder.

"S-Sorry…" she said as she let Severus free of the hug. "I couldn't help myself." She sniffed, tears rolling down her cheeks. Severus nodded understandingly. "I-It's only you, Beatrice and Remus left from the school days now…" she said through her uncontrollable tears. Severus nodded again.

"I apologize for hiding this from you." He said quietly. Clara smiled and nodded. Dumbledore smiled brightly.

"It is good to see that you are getting along again." He said joyfully. "On a final note, Clara, the Malfoys' trial will start tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon. I will meet you there, next to the fountain at that time. Agreed?" Clara nodded. "Good, then Severus, we will return to Hogwarts."

"Wait, you work at Hogwarts now?" Clara asked Severus, who nodded. "Lemme guess…you teach…Potions?" Severus gave a small smile and nodded. "Not surprised honestly…you were amazing at Potions."

"Much like yourself." Severus answered, making Clara grin widely. "I hope to see you soon." he Disapparated after Dumbledore. Clara closed the front door, and went back to the room where her parents were waiting for her. Clara smiled brightly at them as they hugged her for the 200th time. They spent the rest of the evening together.

Before going to her room , Clara paid a visit to Zwinky, who was finishing up the washing in the kitchen.

"Zwinky." She said gently, making the house elf look at her.

"Young mistress wishes something?" Zwinky asked in her high pitched voice.

"No, I wanted to thank you." Clara answered. Zwinky looked shocked. "Thank you for saving Beatrice. And for looking after the house." Zwinky had tears filling her eyes.

"I-I was only following my master's and mistresses' orders." She said shakily.

"Yes, but you did them good heartedly. So, thank you, Zwinky, for being such a help to the family, and being a very important member of the house." Clara said, smiling brightly. Zwinky burst into happy tears.

"Young mistress is so kind to Zwinky, always! Even when young mistress was little!" She said through loud sobs, as Clara hugged her gently.

The next day, Clara woke up early. She had thought things while falling asleep and had made up her mind. She made breakfast for her parents, even though Zwinky was against it. Clara smiled to Zwinky and said that she could help. At breakfast, Clara asked her parents if it was OK for Zwinky to eat with them at the table, for it was thanks to her that Beatrice was alive. Her parents agreed enthusiastically, for they were both good people. Zwinky cried again, but in the end, all four of them enjoyed their early breakfast together.

After this, Clara visited all of her friends for a quick visit, spending the lunch with Remus. She then went to St Mungo's Hospital to visit Frank and Alice quickly, meeting Frank's mother there.

"Oh, Clara, my dear." She said. Clara smiled to her, and noticed she was holding a rather plump looking child. "Oh, this is Neville." Clara smiled sadly.

"He looks like Alice…or at least, how she used to look like." Clara added quietly. Frank's mother nodded, looking as strict and composed as ever.

"Yes, he does indeed. " she nodded jerkily. Clara remembered that Frank and Alice didn't recognise their son at all, and felt the guiltiness of being too weak to stop the Lestranges and Crouch Jr from doing this to them. "I can tell you are feeling guilty, and you should not! It was you-know-who's fault! Who saved one of your friends, and my son and daughter-in-law did not give in to the torture. I am very proud of both of them!"

Clara thought this was a bit arrogant, but knew that Frank's mother meant good. After saying goodbye to her and the one year old Neville, she left the hospital, and apparated to the Ministry of Magic. She passed all of the security stuff, and met Dumbledore next to the fountain.

"Ah, right on time." He said brightly. Clara smiled sweetly, and followed Dumbledore to the appointed trial room.

"Pro-"

"What did I say about calling me 'Professor'?" Dumbledore scorned jokily. Clara smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, old habit. Albus, what does Harry look like?" Clara said in a quiet voice, not wanting to be overheard. Dumbledore chuckled.

"I thought you'd want to know that. He has his mother's eyes." He answered, Clara trying to imagine what Harry looked like. "And his father's features." Clara nodded. "Everybody is now calling him 'The Boy who Lived'."

"Not surprising. Beatrice told me he was being looked after his aunt and uncle." Clara replied with a smile.

"Yes, indeed. I am a little worried about how he is going to be treated, but at least he will be safe in the Muggle world." Dumbledore nodded. "Ah, here we are. Remember, just tell them the truth." They entered the trial room, and Clara saw how Barty Crouch, once saw proud looking, had turned into a very gloomy looking man. All the people who had come to watch, including Remus, Clara's parents, Beatrice, Allistor Moody and Severus, smiled sympathetically at her. Clara didn't smile back, and just went to her appointed seat.

She looked sideways, and saw Lucius and Narcissa, both seemingly composed, but Clara could tell they were terrified, or at least Lucius was. Clara looked down at her lap on her hands.

"We are today to trial Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy." Said Barty Crouch's weary voice. "What are the accusations?"

A skinny woman, whom Clara did not know, stood up, and said: "Lucius Malfoy is accused for being a Death Eater, and following He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's orders. The same accusations have been placed on Narcissa Malfoy." The woman sat down.

"And what do the suspects say of these accusations?" Barty Crouch asked Lucius and Narcissa.

"They are false, Minister. We have been under the _Imperio _curse while doing these acts." Said Lucius' steady drawling voice, though Clara alone could tell there was panic in his voice.

"Are you aware, however, of the testimony of the witness' house elf, named Zwinky, saying that you used the _Crucio_ on an Auror, who is in the audience today but will be kept anonymous, and was stopped by the witness themselves?" Crouch said, motioning to Clara, who was still looking at her lap. Lucius shifted ever so slightly.

"I was unaware of such a testimony, though I can tell you it was wrongly accused upon me, for as I have explained before, both me and my wife were under the _Imperio _curse." Lucius said smoothly.

"Hm, well, we have here a witness, who we have been told you put the _Imperio _curse upon, and would have noticed if you had been under the named curse yourself or not." Crouch said suspiciously, turning to Clara. "Clara de Rambures, have anything to say of these accusations? Is it true that you were under the _Imperio _curse, put upon you by Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Malfoy at the same time?"

Clara stared down at her lap. She looked up slowly, and smiled evilly at Barty Crouch. The audience gasped. Clara grinned madly. "Shows you how stupid the Ministry can get, don't you think?" she said, her voice full of mocking.

"Excuse me?" Barty Crouch asked, shocked.

"I said, 'shows you how stupid the Ministry can get, don't you think?'" Clara repeated, louder.

"I don't think I understand." Crouch's voice asked, even more shocked.

"See? This is what I mean." Clara's voice was drowned in mockery. "Lord Voldemort would have easily overthrown you! Lord Voldemort may have gone, but us Death Eaters will always search for him and he will come back to power! Pathetic people like you have only momentarily power against us!"

The audience gasped, Clara's mum was in tears, and her father's face was red. Remus and Beatrice were shocked beyond belief, Allistor Moody seemed to have lost his glass eyes from the shock of it. Even Dumbledore, who had sat next to her parents seemed to be at loss of words. The only one who seemed to have expected this was Severus.

"Are you saying-…?!" Barty Crouch stood up in pure fury.

"That's right! I put the Malfoys under the _Imperio _curse! I order my house elf to tell you those things if she was ever asked! I've been the culprit along!" Clara yelled, her grin not fading.

"But why?!" Said the skinny woman from earlier. "A brilliant witch as yourself! Why waste it all?!"

"Because I'm sick of all these Mudbloods walking about, thinking they are equal to Purebloods! We are above them! Muggles, half-breeds, muggle-borns, all of them!" Clara answered, motioning especially to Remus on the 'half-breeds' part. He stared at her in utter terror, which reminded Clara of the time she had saved Severus. "But these two wouldn't cooperate, and my Lord needed more followers! Being the last of the Purebloods, that's their duty to follow him! So I put the Controlling curse on them! And you were all too stupid to realise it!"

Clara grinned wider at the disgusted faces. Beatrice stood up. "No! Clara that's not true! Don't say these things!" she yelled, looking completely overwhelmed by all of this.

"And how do you know?! EH?! I was just playing the nice girl at the time! Don't think you know me completely!" Clara yelled back, making Beatrice at loss of words.

"Why you traitor!" Barty Crouch yelled angrily. "Take her to Azkaban! You can stay there for the remaining of your days!"

Two Aurors grabbed Clara by the arm, and searched for her wand, but didn't find it anywhere, for Clara had secretly slipped it into Dumbledore's robes while they talked. They pulled her out the trial room, taking her into another room, where she was thrown in. "You stay here while we call you transport to Azkaban." They said in disgust. Clara only glared at them. When the door closed, her evil grin faded immediately.

Outside, there was commotion, and one of the Aurors entered the room. "5 minutes." Clara's parents burst in, followed by Remus, Beatrice, Allistor Moody and Dumbledore.

"Clara, why?!" Her mother sobbed, clinging unto her. "You just came back to us!"

"Why are you doing this?!" her father said angrily. Clara didn't answer.

"You don't need to do this, they deserve it!" Beatrice joined in. Remus still looked terrified, while Dumbledore looked gently at them. Allistor frowned.

"What's the meaning of what happened, eh?" he growled. Clara looked down.

"…I…I don't know." She said, barely a whisper. "I just…"

"What do ya mean ya don't know?" Allistor asked, louder. Clara stared at her feet. Beatrice shook Clara.

"Clara, just stop! Why are you standing up for those two?" She asked desperately. "Apart from Remus and Severus, you are the only one left!"

"I know that! Look, I have my reasons, OK?! Lucius and Narcissa are precious to me, like all of you, but…Sirius is more precious…I'd rather go to Azkaban, where I can at least see a glimpse of him, or maybe hear about him, than live my life normally without him." Clara answered. Remus looked at her, then smiled.

"You really haven't changed, you know that?" he said sadly. Clara smiled to him.

"I'm sorry." She squeaked.

"I should have expected it." Dumbledore shook his head in defeat. "I should of known you'd want to be with Sirius even in the worst of places." Clara grinned.

"Yeah." She said happily.

"Don't look so happy!" Beatrice begged. "You're going to Azkaban! With the Dementors!" Clara's mother sobbed again.

"I'm sorry." Clara apologized again.

"It's been 5 minutes, you have to leave." The Auror said. Clara's father gave Clara one last sad look, and lead her mother out of the room. Beatrice wouldn't let go of Clara, and was pried away from her by Allistor, who nodded in goodbye. Remus gave her one last smile, and left too. Dumbledore looked at her for a second.

"Well, I guess I'll keep the wand as a keep safe." He whispered with a soothing smile and a wink. Clara gave him an evil smile because the Auror was there, but Dumbledore knew she meant to smile brightly to him. He left the room, and in entered the two Aurors. The tied Clara's hand behind her back, and led her out the room. They led her to a secret tunnel, but they were stopped by Severus, Lucius and Narcissa.

"We need to have a word with her." Severus said dryly. The Aurors groaned in annoyance but let go of her, and walked a little far off from them. Lucius was the first to speak.

"Clara, why?" he asked, his voice flat.

"First of all, you're a bastard." Clara answered bluntly. "And you're a bitch." She said to Narcissa. "But I care for you both. Secondly, you two have a one year old son at home. We already have two children who won't have their parents to look after them, I don't want a third to join them."

"But, Clara…" Narcissa said, her voice quiet. "We were the ones to control you…why do you care?"

"Because no matter how you change or become, I will still remember that you were once two of the three people I looked up the most, and who were the ones to joke with me at my home." Clara answered truthfully. Narcissa cried quietly, and Lucius gave her an apologetic look. "You better look after Draco, or I will kick you next time I see you, OK?" Clara grinned at him, and he gave a small smile back. They left, Lucius wrapping an arm around Narcissa's shoulders. Severus stood in front of her.

"I knew you would do something immature like this." He said. Clara stuck her tongue out at him.

"Of course you did, Mr know-it-all." She joked. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"Even if I tried, your stubbornness would overwhelm me." He answered. Clara laughed quietly.

"OK, you got me there…" she said. Severus smiled sadly at her. "Come on, don't give me that look."

"Hm. Take care." Severus said, patting her on the shoulder lightly.

"You too. And look after Draco. Oh, and no matter how James' and Lily's son looks like them, don't bully him too much." She teased. Severus chuckled lightly, and left. The two Aurors grabbed Clara's arms again, and entered the tunnel, where a chariot was waiting to take Clara to Azkaban.


	8. Love you too much for my own good

Bad Dog!

Chapter 8: Love you too much for my own good

Dirty, depressing, gloomy, sad, evil…just negative stuff popped up in Clara's head as she saw Azkaban. '_Well, I put this on myself, Soooo…I have no reason to complain. This is gonna be 'fun'.' _The memory of her comfortable bed and yummy food seemed like a millennium ago.

As she was pulled out of the carriage and into the prison, Clara felt the coldness that went down her spine. '_Oh, yippee, Dementors. Even better; man…I wish I didn't love Sirius so much._' Clara thought sarcastically.

A dementor was at the front gates, waiting for her. It led the way inside, much to the Aurors' horror, and to Clara's added sarcasm. The Aurors and Clara entered the prison, where Clara was given so very old clothes. '_I'd bet anything that several people have died in this. Whatever…_' Clara thought, a little grossed out at the idea, but finally glad to have a reason to throw away the robes she had been currently wearing, for they had been given to her by an aunt, and they were fine in colour and size, just the fabric was itchingly murderous. She quickly change into her 'new' clothes, and then realised the Aurors had made a run for it and left. '_Wimps.' _Clara thought in her mind.

The seemingly same dementor led her to her prison cell. Clara passed many prisoners, all looking very messed up. She then passed Bellatrix's cell; the woman inside gaping at her. She grabbed Clara's wrist as she passed.

"And how come you're here?" She said in disbelief. The dementor didn't noticed that Clara had been forcefully stopped.

"I gave false testimony in trial to make myself come here instead of Lucius and Narcissa." Clara answered. Bellatrix grinned nastily.

"Oh? Still soft hearted are we?" she asked mockingly. Clara looked at her, and smiled sweetly, making the black haired woman frowned.

"No, but unlike you, I care for Draco's welfare, because I don't want him to grow without his parents; there are already two too many of those." She said gently. At tha moment, another dementor appeared, and Bellatrix quickly let go of Clara's wrist. The dementor approached Bellatrix, and she cowered away into a deep corner of her cell.The dementor that had led Clara returned, and looked as though it was about to do it's 'suck all the happiness outta ya' , like Clara called it, thing, but stopped when Clara obediently followed it.

Clara then passed the cell of the person she was here for in the first place. Sirius. Said man looked at her, and his eyes widened. The dementor opened the cell gates, and Clara silently entered it, the dementor closing the cell gates behind her.

"C-Clara…?" Said a quiet voice from the other side of the wall.

" 'Sup?" she asked jokily. She noticed a small hole in the wall, around the width of her index finger, which seemed to have been gnawed through by insects or something of the sort. She looked through, and saw Sirius' eye. "You gonna tell me what happened with that scumbag of a rat?"

Sirius frowned. "Yeah, but before that…what did the others say?" worry was in his voice. Clara smiled sadly, even though she knew Sirius couldn't see it.

"The Weasleys are determined that you are a murderer, as well as Beatrice. R-Remus thinks so too, because apparently you had been suspicious of him for a while now…is that true Sirius?" Clara answered. Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, I thought that he had been a spy, following Voldemort's orders…" Sirius said truthfully.

"Man, how stupid d'you get…?" Clara muttered, and saw the annoyed look in Sirius' eye. "Can't blame you though…After seeing Lucius, Narcissa and Bellatrix follow Voldemort's orders, I can understand why people have become suspicious of each other. I'd never have expected those three to have become like that…."

Sirius sighed. "Yeah, well ya wanted to know what happened with that bastard, Wormtail." Sirius started. He explained how he had found Peter, and had started to attack him because he knew only Peter could have given away James' and Lily's location. Somehow or the other, Pettigrew had been able to gather the brains and abilities to kill a large amount of muggles in the street, for they had been in a muggle street, as well as cutting off his little finger and turning into a rat, scurrying into the sewers. Of course, the Ministry of Magic immediately put the blame on Sirius, and that's how he had found himself in Azkaban.

"Why that scrawny little son of a-…anyway…I'll tell you how I got here." And Clara told Sirius what happened over the last couple years, and what had happened earlier in the day.

"And you call me stupid?" Sirius asked flatly. "You could've looked after Draco yourself! His parents aren't gonna bring him up well, you know that."

"Maybe…but at least they'll be his actual parents. Harry won't ever know James or Lily, and Neville will only know his parents as the mad people in St Mungo's. I don't want Draco to live with the tale of his parents having both been in Azkaban. Bellatrix is bad enough." Clara explained. Sirius sighed, but nodded.

At that moment, a dementor passed them. Instantly, Clara felt dizzy, cold, miserable. She could hear crying, screaming…then the dementor left, and Clara was left there. "S-Sirius…?" she whispered. She could hear him breathing deeply. "…unhappy thoughts…"

"What…?" Sirius whispered.

"When you're upset, people say: 'think happy thoughts'. In our case, it should be: 'think unhappy thoughts', don't you agree?" Clara said quietly, hearing Sirius chuckle sadly.

"Even in such a place, you think of the silliest things. Nothing's gonna change you ever, I can assure you that." Sirius said. Clara smiled weakly, and raised her left hand. It was clenched around a small object; a silver tear-trop shaped locket, with the initials 'C.d.R' in green upon it. Clara had held it in her hand the whole time.

She put in on, looking at it. She remembered how happy she was when she had received it. Clara viciously shook her head. No…bad…Lucius…what he did…unhappy things…a dementor passed again, and visions of Voldemort and Pettigrew flashed in front of Clara's eyes.

Years passed. Clara didn't know how many. Nor did she care; staying sane was all that was important. 'Staying sane', seemed easy, doesn't it? Try being in Azkaban for a heck of a lot of years.

Some prisoners had died of insanity. Barty Crouch Jr hadn't made it a month till he died. The Lestranges where always screaming about Voldemort, and most prisoners muttered to themselves continuously. Clara and Sirius seemed to be the only ones with their heads still strongly screwed on. Clara had heard herself scream, felt herself cry, but the knowledge of Draco being protected by his parents, the knowledge that her friends where safe, was all that could keep her from losing herself.

Clara often held her locket tightly, taking deep breathes, remembering the worst thoughts she could muster. Sirius was quiet these days, but Clara knew that his knowledge of his innocence was what was keeping him from going insane.

Years, after years. Clara felt as if it had been a century already, and wondered if time slowed down in Azkaban.

A dementor opened her cell gate. Frost covered the walls immediately and Clara shivered. Her foot was put on the ground, and as she looked at it, she noticed a _Daily Prophet _in the Dementor's skeletal hand.

'_OK, since when do Dementors read the 'Daily Prophet'?'_ Clara thought. She noticed the picture of the front page. Weasleys…the Weasleys!

Clara took in everything she could from the picture in the short time he could see it. Egypt, Bill, Charlie, Arthur, Molly, Ron, Fred and George. '_They've grown so much…Ron looks about…thirteen, maybe…fourteen, Weasley size considered.' _Clara noticed a girl next to him, but didn't recognise her. '_Seems Molly and Arthur have a daughter…what's Ron holding?' _Clara noticed the animal in Ron's hand. An abnormally fat rat. Clara paid no more attention to it, but as the dementor left, Clara felt a wave of warmth and happiness flood through her. They were well, that's all that mattered.

"Clara…!" Sirius whispered hurriedly. Clara looked at him through the hole. "Did you see the rat on the newspaper?! The one the youngest Weasley boy was holding?!"

"Yeah, what about it?" Clara whispered back, wondering what this sudden excitement for a simple rat was. Because seriously, they saw those every day.

"That rat, it's Wormtail!" Sirius exclaimed quietly. Clara gaped.

"Peter? B-But...how could you tell?" Clara asked hurriedly.

"One of the rat's front paw's little finger was missing. Wormtail cut his little finger off before transforming into his Animagus form!" Sirius answered. "We gotta get out of Azkaban, and quickly!"

"Sirius, darling, I think you are finally losing your marbles. Nobody has ever escaped Azkaban before, and if I knew of a way to escape it, I would've done a long time ago; even if I did put this curse upon myself." Clara said, sounding as if she had expected this. Sirius frowned.

"We just need to turn into our Animagi forms. Dementors don't feel an animal's emotions, for animals don't have a conscience, or if they do, it's not as obvious as ours, and Dementors don't even realise they are there. How do you think these rats in here are coming in and out of our cells?" Sirius answered seriously. Clara stared at Sirius' black iris.

"You sneaky idiot! Why didn't you say so sooner?!" Clara hissed.

"Cause I wanted to wait till Wormtail showed himself." Sirius answered, a hint of worry in his voice for making Clara a little angry.

"And what if he hadn't?" Clara asked nastily. Sirius seemed a little lost at words there.

"Erm…I hadn't thought of that. Good thing he did though, eh?" Sirius said, sounding a little sheepish. Clara sighed.

"Fine, so when are we escaping?" Clara asked irritably.

"Tomorrow, when the Dementors bring us the food." Sirius said.

And so it became official. The next day, when the dementor opened the cell gate, Clara quickly changed into her panther form, and slipped past the dementor without being noticed. Sirius, in his dog form, was flattened against the wall, waiting for her. They quietly trotted to the lowest floor, passing the prisoners, who didn't even seem to notice their existence. However, once again, Bellatrix grabbed Clara, this time on her tail.

Clara let out a hiss of pain, and turned round angrily to glare at Bellatrix. The later was really messed up. Yellow teeth, matted hair, quite different from the last time Clara had seen her. "Where are we going, Clara? Breaking outta Azkaban? I'm not letting you go until you bring me with you." She said darkly.

Sirius growled at her. Clara frowned, and shook her head. "But I'm your childhood friend, Clara. Come on, help me." Bellatrix said, a little whimper in her voice. Clara felt a pang of guilt in her stomach, the same as when she had seen Sirius so helpless in the exam. Sirius noticed this, and scratched Bellatrix's hand, making her yelp, and let go of Clara's tail. Before Clara could do anything though, her ear was in between Sirius' teeth, and she was being pulled painfully to Azkaban's front gates.

She glared disapprovingly at Sirius, who just looked apologetic, and they quickly slipped through the gates, and made a run for it. Freedom.

A lot of walking. It had been quite a few days now. Sirius and Clara had planned things ahead. Peter was probably acting like Ron's pet, and so Ron would take him to Hogwarts, because the youngest Weasley boy was most probably still at Hogwarts. They would go to Hogwarts, and murder the bloody coward. But Sirius really wanted to see Harry before they went direction Hogwarts, so after looking up a couple of things here and there, they went to Privet drive, were Harry lived.

It was night when they arrived, and from afar, they could hear a large trunk being dragged along the pavement. They were hiding in between two houses, in a narrow gap, when they saw it was a scruffy, black haired boy, who seemed to be rather angry. Sirius sniffed the air, and his eyes brightened. Clara realised, that it was Harry. Like Dumbledore had said, he had Lily's eyes, but looked like a copy of James. Sirius had seen him before, but as a toddler, and this was Clara's first time. But fortune always being on their bad side, Sirius stepped on a stray twig, making the green eyes boy jump and look straight at them. He raised his wand, and whispered _Lumos. _As soon as the light shone, the young boy gasped and let go of it.

Out of nowhere, a bus appeared. Clara remembered the Night Bus, and used this occasion to drag Sirius by the tail out of Harry's view while the boy was distracted. As soon as she found it safe enough, Clara turned into her human form again, soon joined by Sirius, who seemed a little out of it.

"He…really looks like James…" he said, as if hypnotised. Clara nodded.

"Yeah, he has Lily's eyes. He's really become a good looking boy." Clara added, and Sirius looked at her lifting an eyebrow.

"So you found James good looking? This is something I haven't heard about." Sirius said, which was the first thing that he had said for a long time that reminded Clara of the old Sirius. She grinned.

"Jealous? Come on, we got to get going." She teased, turning back to her panther form, and walking towards the vague direction where Hogwarts was. She was joined by the large black dog.

"Whaddya mean: 'Go to your parents' home and hide there.'?!" Clara growled angrily. Sirius and her where now inside the bounds of Hogwarts, and were hiding in the Black Forest. "I've come this far with you, and I'm not leaving!"

Sirius frowned. "Just listen. If I get caught, you will get caught too! I don't want both of us to go back to Azkaban!" he yelped when Clara hit him on the head. "What was that for?!" he hissed.

"You know fully well I'm not the one to play the part of the 'Damsel in Distress'! Stop worrying, I can look after myself!" Clara scorned.

"Yeah, last time, it didn't go so well; you were controlled by the _Imperio _curse, just to remind you." Sirius retorted. Clara flinched, she hated to be reminded.

"Th-that was before! And I'm not leaving, so stop trying!" she said through gritted teeth. Sirius saw there was no point in arguing.

"Fine…first things first: we need to get your wand from Dumbledore's office." Sirius said seriously. Sirius' wand was at the Ministry, and it was too tricky to go get it, so if Clara could get her wand, then it would already be a start.

"Yeah, smartass, I know. And how to plan to get it?" Clara said moodily, still upset at Sirius. Sirius frowned.

"We'll need to infiltrate the castle, and go to Dumbledore's office. For the password, we can guess that it'll be anything to do with sweets." He said, and Clara nodded grumpily. "You'll do that. I'll enter the castle, and try to get into Gryffindor to get Wormtail."

"Say wut? How do you know Ron's in Gryffindor? And you have no idea what the password is." Clara inquired, a little worried at the trickiness of it all.

"He's a Weasley, he'll be in Gryffindor. And I'll need to get the password somehow from the portrait." He answered, as if it was all a piece of cake. Clara sighed, and nodded.

"Fine. And when are you planning to do this?" Clara asked suspiciously.

"During lessons." Sirius said.

'_Sirius' logic: Try to kill someone during the day when anybody can see instead of the night when most people are asleep._' Clara thought irritably. '_Typical._'

Clara trotted through the Hogwarts corridors, looking left and right, sniffing the air to make sure there was nobody around. She hid when a few ghosts passed, but other than that, nothing. There were the portraits and paintings, but she somehow went unnoticed. She arrived in front of the gargoyle, and gulped. She changed back into her human form.

"…Chocolate frogs? No…Acid Drops? OK, fine. Toffee Éclairs? Tsch…I dunno Cockroach Clusters?! Argh!" This was proving to be difficult, and Clara's hot temper was rising. "Oh for the sake of-! CRYSTALIZED PINEAPPLE! PUMPKIN PASTIES!" At the last name, the Gargoyle jumped aside, making way for Clara. "Eh? But Pumpkin Pasties aren't even sweets…" she grumbled, and quickly went up the stairs, entering Dumbledore's office. She peeked in, and entered it when she saw that Dumbledore wasn't there.

Stuff was everywhere, like it had always been, and Clara growled. "How in the name of Salazar Slytherin am I going to find my wand?!"

"Stop yelling, girl!" said a voice. Clara spun to the voice, and saw that it was only the portrait of Phineas Black, Sirius' great-grandfather. "Wait! You're…it can't be. Clara?" the portraits around him gasped, and all the Headmasters and Headmistresses were staring at Clara. Clara was very uncomfortable under their gazes.

"E-Eh…y-yes, sir…" Clara nervousness caused her to say 'sir', even though there was no need. All the portraits were now muttering.

"Dumbledore said you had been sent to Azkaban because you gave a false testimony to protect Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, how come you are here?" Phineas asked. Clara twitched at the name.

"I-I escaped. Long story, I'll tell Dumbledore and he can tell you; if I ever get to talk to him that is. Anyway, do you know where he put my wand?" she asked hurriedly.

"Hm, depends. Was it made of Yew, about 13 inches long?" Phineas asked. Clara nodded. "Oh, yes. He put it in the top left drawer of the desk, in a black wand box." Clara searched for her wand in said place, and when she found it, she pocketed it quickly. "Clara, I need to ask you, what has happened to Regulus? Dumbledore wouldn't say, and I haven't been able to talk to my descendants back at their home."

Clara froze. "R-Regulus…? Oh…h-h-he died a few years ago…wait…How long have I been in A-Azkaban?" she asked quickly.

"Well, Harry Potter was one when you entered it, and he is now thirteen, so give or take, about twelve years." Said one of the portraits. Clara nodded in thanks, glancing to Phineas. "What has happened to the Black family?"

"Died. The only ones left are Narcissa, Bellatrix and that useless great-grandson of mine, Sirius." Phineas said. Clara frowned, and nodded, thanking him, and sprinted out of the office. When she was next to the gargoyle, she turned into her Animagus form, and sprinted back to where she had come from.

"You! Stop right there!" A loud voice was heard through the corridors. Clara flinched. Lessons hadn't ended, so how…? She turned round, and saw a hissing cat and an old looking, weather-beaten man, who looked oddly like an elderly Filch. Clara gasped and sprinted away. "Professor McGonagall! I've found a suspicious animal!" Clara could hear him yelling, and quickly sprinted to the seventh floor, which was the floor below her. She looked to the left corridor, and quickly trotted in front of it three times.

'_I need a place to get out of here, I need a place to get out of Hogwarts, I need to a place to get out of Hogwarts.' _A door appeared. It looked a lot like the front gates of Hogwarts. She rushed through them, and found herself outside. '_Eh? I didn't know this could happen!_' she thought, relieved, and ran to the Black Forest. There she met a flustered back dog, who looked very nervous. The pair went deeper into the forest, before they changed back to normal. "What happened? Why was Filch out and about?"

"Eh…well…I tried to make the Lady in the portrait tell me the password, but…uh…she wouldn't tell me, and I got a bit…short tempered…" Sirius said nervously, shrinking under Clara's glare. "I…uh…attacked the portrait."

"Oh, well congratulations!" Clara said sarcastically. "You receive the prize of the idiot of the century!" she took a deep breath. "Well, whatever. I got my wand. Phineas Black told me that your whole family has died; he said that it's only Narcissa, Bellatrix and you left." Clara told Sirius.

Sirius' expression was unreadable. "Good ridden of bad trash." He said gruffly. "What we need to do now is to get the password to Gryffindor."

"Ugh…If I didn't love you so much, I would've abandoned you ever since I heard you were place in Azkaban." Clara sighed. "Being with you is ruining what I could have become, but whatever."


	9. Harry & the prisoners of Azkaban 1

Bad Dog!

Chapter 9: Harry and the Prisoners of Azkaban (part 1)

For the next few weeks, Clara stayed in the Forbidden Forest, much to her boredom, while Sirius tried to kill Pettigrew. He often came back with a ginger cat named Crookshanks, and they talked about strategies on how to get to the damned rat, which normally consisted on Clara staying in the Forbidden Forest. That didn't really bother her, but what did bother her, is that Sirius even went to watch Harry play Quidditch **and **sent him a Firebolt for Christmas. Also, just sitting about being useless wasn't in Clara's nature.

"Why can't I come with you?" Clara asked Sirius in an irritated voice.

"Because Filch already saw you." Sirius answered. "And we can't take any chances."

"Take what chances? The Lady in the portrait saw you too!" Clara retorted. Sirius sighed, and didn't answer. "Hmph, whatever. So, what's your next move?"

"Crookshanks gave me a piece of paper with all the passwords to get into Gryffindor. He stole it from one of the boys in Harry's year." Sirius answered gruffly. "It'll give us a chance to get the stupid rat."

Clara sighed impatiently. "And do I get to do anything?"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. "Why are so eager to come with me?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I'm bored out of my mind, or that I hate having to worry like a mother that's just seen her son go to war." Clara answered roughly, glaring. Sirius flinched and gave a tense smile.

"I'm sorry…but those aren't the only reasons, right? What else is bothering you?" Sirius asked worriedly. Clara tensed.

"N-Noth-…" she saw Sirius' unconvinced expression. "OK…fine. I want to see Severus and Lucius' son, Draco." Sirius stared at her, and frowned.

"Why would you want to see Snivellus and that Death Eater's son?" he growled lowly. Clara hissed at him, very cat like.

"Don't. Call. Him. That. And I want to see them because: Number 1, SEVERUS is my friend, number 2 because I happen to still love Lucius like a big brother, and number 3, I just want to see how Draco's grown up. But I also want to see my godsons, Fred and George."

Sirius and Clara glared at each other. "I understand why you want to see them, but you can't. You are a wanted self- imposed criminal, and I'm a wanted mistaken criminal, so if we're both together, things are gonna get ugly, and that's that." He said dismissively, which made Clara's temper rise, but said nothing.

Clara cringed at the wanted posters of Sirius and herself in Hogsmeade. Seriously, Sirius didn't look anything like that maniac in the posters, and she did **not **look like a psychopathic killer, even though she kinda made that face to make Lucius and Narcissa safe, but still! Clara sighed, and trotted around in her panther form, trying to find some food for herself, while Sirius looked food to eat for himself. It was easier this way, and they could corner food, aka mice or something like, easily. Clara remembered the delicious ice cream and treacle tarts she loved so much and had eaten in Hogwarts, making her drool. Her stomach rumble loudly, and she shook the thought of food out of her head as she noticed a rather meaty mouse.

"I'm sooooooooo borrrrrrrreeeeeeeed…." Clara whined. She wanted to do something useful. Sirius had been seen again, this time by Ron himself. The idiot was now walking about the grounds with Crookshanks. Clara had hidden away deep in the forest, where the centaurs lived, and they were OK with letting her hide there. It was better than being with giant spiders, Clara thought, shuddering at the thought of Aragon and his descendants. In all honesty, Clara wanted to watch the Hogwarts students have their Care of Magical Creatures lessons, for she knew by scent that Harry was among them, and she also wanted to see Hagrid. She sighed irritably. What a bore…

"Clara?" Sirius' voice was heard, a shirt way off. Clara made a bored whistling sound. Sirius came in view and looked thoroughly worned out.

"What happened to you?" Clara asked suspiciously, but in a bored tone.

"Nothing, I just ran back here to tell you that tonight is when we're gonna get Pettigrew." Sirius informed, catching Clara's attention immediately. "Here's the plan. Tonight, Hagrid's Hippogriff, Buckbeak, is going to be executed and I overhead Harry talking to Ron and a girl about visiting Hagrid before the execution. Thing is, Pettigrew is hiding in Hagrid's hut, and maybe Hagrid'll notice and give it to Ron, so we'll be able to ambush them and get the rat!"

Sirius explained clearly, Clara nodding a few times. "OK, so we're basing this entire plan on chance? Not like we can do anything else though, so let's try."

A panther roamed round Hagrid's cottage at a safe distance, while a large black dog was standing under the darkness of the trees of the Forbidden Forest. Clara noticed that Hagrid opened his door, and understood quickly that Harry and his friends had used his father's cloak. After a few minutes, Clara noticed three other figures. She flattened herself into the shadows, and saw it was Dumbledore, the Minister of magic (she had seen him in some of the trashed _Daily Prophets_) and a man which she knew she had seen before, and was carrying a large axe. Clara eyed the movements of the three men, and looked back to Hagrid's cottage. Ron seemed to have found his rat, and was now being ushered under the invisibility cloak with Harry and the girl by Hagrid. As soon as they had disappeared, the three newcomers knocked on the door, to be greeted with a flustered and upset Hagrid.

Clara wanted to help the poor Hippogriff, but knew that she had to keep to the plan. When the large axe went downwards unto the creature, Clara looked away. She saw the bushy haired girl and she also looked upset. Then there was a yelp of pain. The hunt had started. Pettigrew had just bitten Ron, who ran after him, followed by Harry and the girl. Clara rushed to the direction she knew Peter would take, and hid behind the Whomping Willow. Ron caught the rat, and before Harry could get close to him, Clara pounced unto Ron, who yelled in fright. Clara snarled and growled at him, looking warningly at Harry and his other friend, who also seemed terrified.

"Who are you?!" Harry demanded.

'_He sounds a lot like James…_' Clara thought, but also roared at him. She saw Sirius behind them, and he barked, catching the children's attention.

Harry seemed petrified, and before he could react, Ron was being dragged into the opening in the Whomping Willow.

As we made our way to the Shrieking Shack, like they had planned, Ron was fighting fiercely against the grip Sirius had on him, while Clara tried to get the squeaking rat from Ron's hands, but he was holding it too tightly for Clara to reach the bloody creature.

As they entered the Shrieking Shack, Sirius threw Ron unto the bed, and that was when Clara realised that Ron's leg was in a terrible shape.

'_Probably happened when he tried to stop us dragging him into the Whomping Willow._' Clara thought worriedly. She looked to Sirius, who nodded, and Clara changed into her human form.

"Y-You're an Animagus?! Wait, you're Clara, one of the prisoners that escaped Azkaban!" Ron freaked out.

"Please calm down, Ron." Clara asked gently.

"Calm down?! Whaddya mean, 'Calm down'?! And how do you know my name?!" Ron demanded, extremely frightened.

"Clara, they're coming." Sirius had changed back into his normal form, which made Ron gasped in terror. Sirius looked even more worn out after Ron mentioned Azkaban, and looked extremely grumpy.

'_Seriously…_' Clara sighed mentally. She hid behind the bed curtains, which hid her completely. Harry and the girl came bursting in.

"Ron!" the girl cried, and gasped when she realised Ron's leg was broken.

"It's a trap, Hermione! Harry get outta here!" Ron warned them, still holding on to the squirming Pettigrew.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"They're animagi!" Ron cried out, pointing to where Sirius had been standing in the shadows.

"Sirius Black!" the girl named Hermione screamed, and she took out her wand quickly, but Clara was quicker.

"_Expelliarmus!_" She said, and caught the wand. Harry and Hermione turned round quickly to Clara, who wasn't pointing her wand to them. "Calm down, all of you, we're not going to hurt you."

"Not hurt us?! You're joking right?!" Harry yelled, and Clara saw why. The Whomping Willow had done its job, and given both kids cuts and bruises. The ginger cat Crookshanks trotted in casually, and rubbed it's head against Clara's leg.

"OK, maybe you did get hurt, but listen-" Clara started.

"I'm not listening to anybody who works with the man who betrayed my parents!" Harry yelled, and quicker than Clara could react, the wands she was holding flew out of her hands. Harry pointed his wand menacingly to Sirius.

"You're gonna kill me, eh? I'm completely vulnerable, even though you have no idea what happened." Sirius said darkly.

"I don't care for you reason! But I still know you're the reason my parents died!" Harry yelled angrily. Clara understood that he had been taught what everybody believed about Sirius.

"No! You've got it wrong!" Clara screamed, but before Harry could say a spell, Crookshanks was attacking Harry enough to make him cry out in pain. Hermione called out to the cat to stop attacking Harry, until the cat was thrown to the floor by a very angry Harry, who pointed his wand to Sirius again.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Harry's wand flew out of his hand, and cluttered unto the floor, while all eyes went to the newcomer.

"You're…Remus!" Clara said, highly relieved. Remus looked at Clara, then at Sirius. Sirius looked sadly at his old friend, but when Remus approached him, and hugged his old friend tightly, his eyes lightened up a fraction.

"What's the meaning of this? After I covered up for you!" Hermione cried out, shocked and angry. Remus turned to her, and looked to Clara, who hadn't moved.

"Hermione, you don't understand." He said calmly, as he had always been.

"What do you mean, covered up for him?" Ron asked, his voice shaking.

"He's a werewolf!" Clara answered furiously, which made Ron look at Remus in fear and repulsion. Harry didn't seemed to care if Remus was a werewolf or not.

"You helped him in, didn't you?" Harry growled.

"No, Harry, that's not what happened." Remus shook his head.

"That is exactly what happened." Said a cold voice, which struck Clara's senses to their full attention. Severus came in slowly, his hand pointed at Sirius and Remus. "I've heard enough to get you two into Azkaban." He said, sneering. Clara frowned.

"Severus! Stop it!" Clara scorned angrily. Severus looked, shocked at her. Harry seemed to have lost all ability of speech.

"Clara, it's been a long time." Severus said, as cold as ever, and Clara could do so much to stop herself hugging Severus again. She had seriously missed her old friend.

"Severus, lower your wand." Clara ordered, looking into her friend's black irises. Severus gave a small triumphant smiled.

"Now, that isn't acceptable. These two have gone against the law, and Azkaban is where they'll go." He answered coldly. The three children didn't seem to understand why Clara wasn't going to join them into Azkaban too, but their confused looks where ignored.

"Don't tell me you still have a grudge from **that **time. Severus, just drop it already, it's been too long for anyone to care about it anymore." Clara said, a note of desperate begging in her voice. Severus sneered again, but before he could answer-

"_Stupefy!_" Harry had retrieved his wand, and Snape was sent flying backwards. Clara flinched, while Hermione gasped.

"Harry, you attacked a teacher! You could get expelled for that!" she said in pure disbelief.

"I don't care! I want to know what happened!" Harry demanded to the three conscious grow ups.

"It's true, you have a right to know." Remus said, even though Sirius was looking impatient.

So everything was explained. Remus' relationship with Sirius and Clara, their time during Hogwarts, how Clara had been under the Controlling Curse, Pettigrew betraying the Potters and being able to but the blame on Sirius and go into hiding. They also explained why Clara had been put into Azkaban, and Harry looked at Clara as if she had just killed someone in front of him, not believing it had been possible for somebody to care about any of the Malfoys. Clara then explained briefly how they escaped Azkaban, and what they did after that.

"And Sirius and I infiltrated into Hogwarts, because we need to get a certain somebody." Clara hissed, glaring at the rat in Ron's hands.

"M-Me?" Ron exclaimed in fear.

"No, you idiot, that damned creature in your hands!" Sirius growled loudly, scaring the three children. "That's Pettigrew!"

Ron looked at the squirming and twisting creature in his hands. "It's not! It's Scabbers! Scabbers has been in our family for-"

"Thirteen, twelve years?" Sirius said, louder. Ron closed his mouth, and Clara knew Sirius was right. "Give the rat, Weasley!" Ron hesitated, but let go of the creature with a yelp, because he had gotten bitten again.

Remus quickly pointed his wand to the rat, and Clara didn't hear what he said, but just felt the anger inside her flourishing once more. In front of them all, was the beady-eyed Peter Pettigrew.

"Nice of you to show your form, Peter." Clara hissed, approaching him quickly, and grabbing him by the front of his clothes. The short man whimpered in fright as Clara's hazel eyes burnt with anger. "It didn't stop you, did it? When I yelled at you to stop, it didn't stop you betraying them, did it, you worthless coward!?" Clara yelled angrily, pulling Pettigrew up so they were face to face, but Pettigrew was lifted off the ground as she held him by his clothes, and his started choking.

"Clara, I think it's your turn to calm down." Remus said, barely managing to stop her killing the Animagus. She glared at the short man who coughed.

"I think strangling him is a very good idea." Sirius commented, taking a menacing step towards Pettigrew, who scurried backwards, but stiffened when Harry's wand was pointed at him.

"No…don't kill him. He can go to Azkaban instead; he'll suffer more there, and he'll pay back for all those years you've spent in Azkaban as an innocent man." He said seriously. Clara felt like she was having a deja-vu, reminding her of when James had had that very expression when he had told Remus, Sirius and Clara that he wanted to marry Lily.

"Oh, thank you, Harry Potter, thank you." Pettigrew thanked repeatedly, trying to approach Harry.

"Don't touch me." Harry said, making the short man stay still, the wand still pointed at his face. "You're coming with us to Professor Dumbledore, and we'll explain everything, then you'll be sent to Azkaban."

Hermione sheepishly handed Clara's wand back to her as they left the Shrieking Shack back into the tunnel. Sirius was making the unconscious Snape hover in the air, and obviously didn't care if Snape was hitting his head on the ceiling because of his carelessness.

"Sirius, please, can you at least _look _where you leading Severus?" Clara demanded more than asked.

"Nah…" Sirius replied, receiving a glare. "Come on, he's unconscious."

"Still…" Clara pouted. Ron was being supported by Harry and Hermione, while Clara and Remus had Pettigrew tied by golden chain like strings sprouting from their wands.

"You know, now that I think about it, you have the last kind of personality that a criminal would have." Ron said, addressing Clara, who beamed back at him.

"Aw, thanks Ron, I'll take that as a compliment~" she half cooed. "Ya know, last time I saw you, you were just a year old. I really feel old when I see the new generation grow up like this. Plus, I bet you anything you'll be growing taller at the speed of light. Your father was like that. One second I was taller than him even though he's older than me, next, he's twice me height." Clara said, remembering Arthur.

"Still talk like there's no tomorrow. Guess that'll never change." Remus said, making Sirius snicker.

"Shudup Lupin…But Ron, how are Fred and George?" Clara asked eagerly wanting to know about her godsons.

"Fine, they're complete pranksters, and they tease me a lot. They're really smart, but they only bother with their pranks and don't do so well in lessons because they can't be bothered." Ron replied. Clara laughed loudly, her laugh echoing through the tunnel.

"They sound like a pair of trouble-makers, much like three other people I know." Clara said, glaring at Wormtail, who seemed to shrink into himself, then gave a meaningful look to Sirius and Lupin, whose eyes both showed amusement.

Harry was staring at Sirius and Clara. "So you knew my father?"

"Yeah, we used to be best friends, like we explained earlier." Severus answered gently. "Except for Clara, she only became friends with us in fifth year."

"Not like I had a choice, did I?" Clara murmured. Remus let out a quiet chuckle, which was not missed by the three children, who gave him questioning looks.

"OK…and are you really my godfather?" Harry asked Sirius, the young teenager seeming desperate to know the answer. Sirius' face tendered and he looked gently at Harry, and nodded. Harry's eyes seemed to light up, and Clara suddenly had the image of Lily. She lowered her head. Ron was the next to ask a question.

"Why are you so interested in George and Fred anyway?" he asked. Clara looked at him, and grinned.

"I'm their godmother." Clara announced. Ron gaped, and Hermione and Harry almost dropped him by surprise.

"S-Seriously?" Hermione asked. Clara nodded, but didn't say anything else, for they were arriving at the end of the tunnel. She urged Wormtail out, following him. She saw Sirius and Harry follow next, but they moved a little away from the group, and Sirius seemed to be talking to him. Hermione was supporting Ron, who told her to put him down. Severus had been dropped back on the floor, much to Clara's indignity. Lupin came out last, followed shortly by the forgotten Crookshanks. However, Clara got shivers down her back; a wrong kind of shiver. Sub consciously, she looked upwards, and dread flooded her.

"Remus! Go back in the tunnel, now!" Clara yelled, to Remus, who looked at her with frightened eyes. Too late. The full moon showered Remus completely as he double over moaning in pain. "No! Sirius! Remus is…!" Clara couldn't finish her sentence, for an incredible force smashed her into the Whomping Willow. The air was knocked out of her lungs, and she gasped for breath. Hermione let out a terrified scream, and a loud spine-chilling howl was heard. The werewolf turned to Hermione and Ron, and just before it could strike them, a large black dog bit its neck. The werewolf howled in pain, and an all-out brawl started. The three children were lost and scared while Clara tried to catch her breath back. The world swam in front of her eyes, and she was just able to see Wormtail disappear into the shrubs as a rat.

"Y-You two…" she said breathlessly, talking to Harry and Hermione, because Ron couldn't move anyway. "Don't get close to Remus."

She stood up, shakily, just in time to see Sirius being thrown into the bushes, and Remus turning towards them, his fangs bearing at them dangerously. Clara turned into her Animagus form, and pounced unto the werewolf, digging her claws into his back as she landed on him, then sprinted into the forest, hearing Remus chasing after her.

'_Good, now they'll be safe for the moment._' She thought, sprinting deeper and deeper into the forest. '_I've just got to keep Remus away from them till sunrise._' She stopped when she felt they were far away enough, and she turned to Remus. He snarled at her, and she hissed back.

During the rest of the night till sunrise, the two creatures fought and wounded each other.


	10. Harry & the prisoners of Azkaban 2

Bad dog!

Chapter 10: Harry Potter and the Prisoners of Azkaban (part 2)

Morning came, and by then, Clara was at the end of her strength. Remus slowly changed back into a human, very nearly naked. Clara blushed madly and looked away. She took a large leaf and transfigured it into a cloak. She quickly wrapped it around Remus, hoping he'd be OK. As soon as the cloak was on Remus, she sighed in relief, and fell backwards, sitting on the ground.

"Idiot..." Clara pouted wearily. Remus was panting lightly. Clara had tried to give him as little wounds as possible, herself avoiding them all, cause in all honesty, becoming a werewolf Animagus didn't sound appealing at all.

"I-I'm sorry…" Remus said tiredly, wobbling to stand up, wrapping the cloak around him tightly. He offered his hand to Clara, who took it, and pulled her up. "I should've been more careful. Because of me, Wormtail escaped."

Clara stared flatly at him. "That's not what I'm worried about. I'm worried about Sirius. Who knows what's happened to him!"

Remus seemed to remember that Sirius had also been with Clara. "But he can look after himself. Harry was with him, so he'll be OK. Come on, we've gotta go back inside and get you cleaned up. The pupils shouldn't have woken up yet." Clara said, pulling Remus by the wrist towards the school.

As they entered it, Clara turned into her Animagus form again, smelling every corner for a pupil or teacher. They were able to reach Remus' office without meeting anybody, and Clara waited outside for Remus as he changed. He then let her in quickly. Clara trotted in and turned back into a human. "Much better." She nodded as she saw Remus fully clothed and patched up. Remus gave a weak smile, but looked upset. "Moony? What's wrong?"

Remus jolted at the nickname. "I was such a burden to you…I'm sorry."

Clara smiled and hugged Remus. "Nah, it's OK. It reminded me of the first time I met you guys in the forest."

Remus smiled and hugged her back gently. "What about Sirius?" Clara thought.

"I don't know. We'll have to look for Harry and his friends later."

"We? Don't you even think about it. When Filch said he had seen a panther, I knew immediately it was you! If he sees you again we'll both be in trouble." Remus scorned. Clara pouted. "The doggy eye treatment doesn't work on me. What we need to do is Dumbledore."

"And he is here." Said a calm and gentle voice. Remus and Clara jumped and broke the hug.

"P-Professor!" Clara choked. Dumbledore gave her a scrutinising look. "Oh…eh…sorry…Albus." He smiled again.

"Good to see you again, Clara. To inform you, Harry potter and Hermione Granger saved Sirius." Dumbledore said. He then explained that Hermione, using her Time Turner, had been able, with Harry Potter, to save the Hippogriff, Buckbeak, and Sirius Black, who had been caught and imprisoned in one of the towers. Sirius had flew away on Buckbeak to a safe place. "And he told Harry to tell you to go and stay at your parents' home, and promised to write to you soon."

Clara nodded. She understood what had happened, and was incredibly grateful to Hermione and Harry. "So…I should go back to my parents' home, right?" Dumbledore nodded in response. Clara felt happy to see her parents, but wanted to see a few people first. "C…Could I…maybe see a few of the students….?" She asked hesitantly. Dumbledore smiled knowingly.

"I'm sure they would be OK, since you aren't actually a criminal. Don't worry, I'll just say that you wanted to be with Sirius instead of alone, shall I?" Dumbledore proposed. Clara nodded; they didn't need to know anything about Lucius and Narcissa. "But first…I believe you need to get washed up." And Clara blushed out of embarrassment. Her hair was matted, and dirt and wounds covered her skin.

"That'd be a good start..." she murmured.

Clean. Since, what? Thirteen years? It was a wonderful feeling. Her hair was wavy and silky again, her pale skin was visible and dirt free, and her wounds had been cleaned. She was now wearing some spare robes that Professor McGonagall was very enthusiastic to lend. Everybody who had ever known Clara knew that she was innocent. She'd never kill anyone, and she loved her family and friends too much to ever want to hurt them, so it was with many tears and smiles that all the teachers that remembered her greeted her. She smiled brightly at her, her teeth clean and sparkling, for she had worked on them for a good long hour.

The only downfall of all of this, was that Snape had _accidentally _said that Remus was a werewolf, and Remus had locked himself in his office. Clara knew that he was planning to leave Hogwarts, and was saddened by this, and she scorned Severus for it, but he only ignored her.

"Well, now that you are all freshened up, who is it that you wanted to see?" Dumbledore asked Clara, all the teachers having gone to teach their lessons.

"I...I was thinking…all of the Weasley children at the school who I haven't seen yet, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy." Clara replied hesitantly, once more. "But, oh…won't they believe I am a criminal?"

"Do not worry, I have informed the Ministry. They will arrive here tomorrow for an interrogation, and you **will **tell them that all you wanted to do was join Sirius, you understand?" Dumbledore instructed, in a very serious voice. Clara nodded sheepishly. "Good, then I will make sure to fetch the children requested, now in fact." Having said this, he left the staff room, telling Clara to go to his office.

Clara went into the Dumbledore's office, and waited anxiously. Did Neville look like his mother, or his father? What was Draco like? Where Fred and George really such daredevils? Was the only daughter of the Weasley family like Molly? Were any of the other Weasleys boys still in Hogwarts? As Clara was thinking these questions, she jumped when the door opened. She spun round, and saw Dumbledore walking in, followed by a very stiff looking ginger boy, two tall ginger twins, a little girl with long ginger hair, a boy with a plump face looking nervous, and a boy with white-blonde hair and pale blue eyes. Clara couldn't say anything. She realised just how much she had missed during her years in Azkaban, and it took all of her will to not hug them all.

"Well, I leave you alone, tell me when you are ready go back to your lessons." Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him. All the students looked at Clara suspiciously, especially the little girl. But Clara only grinned back.

"It's been a long time since I've seen all of you!" She chimed happily. "Except you. You weren't born yet, what's your name?" she addressed the girl, who looked taken back from the happy grin.

"G-Ginny Weasley." She said.

"Should've known, your gingerness makes that pretty obvious." Clara joked, gaining a small smile from the girl. "Alright, then…I've gotta make out who is who now." She looked at the boys. The twins where looking eagerly, the oldest looking ginger boy's face was as stoic as stoic could be, the plump boys was fidgeting nervously, and the white blonde haired boy was looking bored. Clara pointed to the oldest looking boy, and he jolted. "Perceval Ignatius Weasley! Also named Percy!" Clara exclaimed.

Percy looked a little taken back, but nodded. "Yeah, you've grown alright…taller than me too…" Clara pouted. "Last time I saw you, you were being all shy…but then again you were something like five or six." Percy's cheeks flushed a little red, while the twins sniggered. "Don't get me started on you two, Fred and George Weasley! I held you two in my arms as new-borns!"

It was the twins' turn to blush. Clara grinned. "I remember, you guys used to call me Auntie. You were so cute then…" Clara teased a little. The twins gave embarrassed smiles. "But I am also your godmother, so I'll be expecting you two to listen to me, OK?" The twins opened their mouths wide in disbelief. "Yup, I am your godmother~" Clara grinned widely. She left the gobsmacked twins to turn to Ginny. "It's true, you really do look like your mother. You've got the same air of bossiness and authority around you as Molly does." The girl grinned widely, obviously proud at the last statement.

Clara then looked to the plump boy. "Oh my…you really do look like Alice, Neville…" Clara said, feeling very nostalgic. He looked very much like his mother, and had the same type of shyness as his father. "Last time I saw you…let see, yeah, you were still a baby." Neville gave her a shy smile, and looked at his feet in sheer embarrassment. The paled eyed boy sniggered.

"Uhum, Draco Lucius Malfoy, I was there when you were born, and I before I went to Azkaban, you were also a toddler." It was the pale boy's turned to flush a bright red. "I seriously hope Lucius brought you up properly, otherwise I'm gonna have a word with him, you can tell him that when you go home, 'kay?" Clara grinned, looking Draco up and down for any sign of mistreatment. "But you really do look a lot like your father, that's for sure."

Clara looked at the all the students, smiling brightly at them all. "Hah…you growing up like this really does make me feel old." She sighed.

"H-Hey, um…" Percy stuttered. Clara looked at him, and smiled brightly.

"Just call me Clara." She instructed.

"Um…Clara, we were told you went to Azkaban because you wanted to be with Sirius Black…why?" He asked hesitantly. Clara stared at him.

"Isn't it obvious? He's my lover, Perce." She grinned, using Percy's nickname.

"Eh? How can you love a murderer?" one of the twins asked. Clara couldn't figure out which of the twins he was.

"Are you Fred, or George? Fred? OK, cool. Well…let's see…I've known Sirius since I was eleven, and I just don't believe he did any of that stuff. You see, I was under the controlling curse, and…I got to see things I didn't like; so I'm convinced Sirius didn't kill all those people, especially not Wormtail!" Clara said, sounding very confident and stubborn. The twins looked at her, and sniggered. "What?"

"Well…we just imagined that you were going to be a little different from how you are now, having been in Azkaban and all." The other twins replied, receiving an angry hiss from Percy. But Clara only grinned and laughed.

"Ask Molly and Arthur, and they'll tell you things about me you wouldn't think possible!" she laughed.

They all had a bit of a chit chat, especially with the twins. Soon, though, they needed to go, but Clara asked Draco to stay behind for a second. He stared at her, and she stared back. "What? Are you going to say anything?" he drawled, ever so Lucius like. Clara was trembling.

"ARGH! I CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE!" she proclaimed loudly, and hugged Draco tightly, suffocating him a little.

"Mmphf! C-can't breathe…!" he said in a muffled voice. Clara let go of him, and grinned sheepishly. "W-What was that about?" he asked, trying to get his breath back.

"Sorry, sorry! But…" she smiled tenderly. "I'm just so glad. You look so much like Lucius, yet you have a sort of Narcissa feeling around you, it's a good mix. Also, I'm just so happy you're well, you are after all, reason why I went to Azkaban."

Draco gaped. "What? But I thought…"

"That's just a story that Dumbledore made up. The real reason was that your parents were going to be sent to Azkaban, and I didn't want that to happen. Firstly, there were already two children with no parents, Harry and Neville, and I thought that a third was unnecessary, secondly, I wanted you to be brought up by your parents, not some aunt and uncle, thirdly, I didn't want you to be known as 'the kid with his parents in Azkaban', and fourthly, I used to look up to Lucius and Narcissa…" Clara said, her voice getting to a mere whisper. "They were my closest and most important friends, as well as others, and I didn't want anything to happen to them…" Clara said, smiling at Draco, who looked at her in a mix between not understanding her, disbelief and awe. She grinned at him, and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Say 'hi' to Lucius and Narcissa for me."

Draco nodded slowly, walking out of the room, as if in a daze. Clara felt so happy right now.

When the Aurors came to interview Clara, she just said what Dumbledore had told her to do, and, most of them knowing Clara well, accepted this, and Clara's 'Death Eater' record was cleared. Clara was so happy, and Dumbledore announced this to the whole of Hogwarts, who looked disbelieving at Clara, who grinned back. She sat next to Snape, and talked animatedly to him, like the good old times, Snape only answering with a nod, or a grunt, while Clara blabbed on about something random.

"Ah~ I've missed Hogwarts' chocolate ice cream!" she declared happily to Snape, who only answered with a grunt, and decided to glare at Harry. Clara sighed. "I thought I asked you not to hate him too much."

"I know. If you hadn't asked me to not hate him too much, he'd be in detention every night, and Gryffindor would have no house points." He said back, and Clara sighed.

"Man, cold as ever aren't you?" Clara muttered.

"As in love with food as ever, I see." Severus answered dryly, while Clara was eating her ice cream.

"Shudup…you'd feel like this too if you had just spent the last twelve or so years in Azkaban. Even if I did make myself go there; but still!" Clara replied between mouthfuls. "But now that my name was cleared, I dunno what I'm gonna do…I mean, I wanna continue being an Auror, but I also want to stay here and watch the kids grow…but there won't be any places here for me, so I'll guess I'll just become an Auror again."

"Hm, well there will be the Defence against the Dark Arts position." Severus said, in a somewhat cocky voice. Clara scowled.

"Keep on saying those things and I'll hex your office." She scorned, wiping away the cocky aura around Severus immediately. He scowled back, but said nothing. After the meal, Clara stayed with Severus, greeting the few students she knew. She followed Severus into the Slytherin house. "Wow, it's been a while, but nothing's changed. I'm surprised." Clara commented, while several Slytherin first years rushed to her, and started asking her several questions, which she answered happily. Severus had disappeared into the boys' dormitory, but Clara was too busy to notice. All the Slytherin first years wanted to know about Azkaban, about Sirius and about Clara herself, and Clara answered as truthfully as she could.

When all of the first years went to bed, Clara looked at the inside of the lake, noticing a dark shadow, which she knew was the Giant Squid. "Hello, pal, remember me?" Clara whispered to the shadow, she came nearer, and seemed to wave at her with one of its' tentacles. Clara grinned.

"Um…uhum." Clara jumped, spinning round in surprised, but smiled gently when she saw Draco. "I…I wrote to my father about our meeting…and he also read the _Daily Prophet _who published your interrogation, and he wants to meet up with during my holidays. He told me to ask you if you were to accept his invitation." He took a deep breath. "Would you be willing to come to our manor for a couple of days? You can come whenever you want."

Clara took some time to register those words, before she squealed happily. "'Course I'll come! Tell Lucius I'll come a few days after I've visited my parents, 'kay?" she grinned happily. "Oh, and you don't need to be so formal with me, Draco."

The white-blond headed boy nodded, a small smile forming on his lips.

"Don't worry, Harry, Padfoot will be fine! I'm sure he'll write to you soon!" Clara reassured Harry. "I'll come visit you during the holidays, OK? I'll be visiting you too Ron! And Hermione, we'll keep contact while you travel, yes? Great!" she grinned at them all. "Well, see you! I won't be staying on Hogwarts, but I'm sure I'll meet you guys at some point!"

The three of them smiled brightly and nodded. "Bye Clara!" Harry said from the train window as it started to move. Clara waved back happily to him and the others. She then caught a glimpse of Ginny and Neville, waved at them too, and then grinned, and gave thumbs up to the Weasley twins and their friend, Lee Jordan, who returned it with interest. She also saw Draco and winked; the latter nodding at her in recognition.

She joined Hagrid, who was making his way back to the castle. "It's nice to be back." She said to Hagrid.

"It's good ta have ya back, Clara." Hagrid answered, grinning brightly. They were met half way by Dumbledore.

"Hello, Hagrid, hello Clara. I'm here to take you back home, Clara." Dumbledore smiled gently. Clara grinned nodding.

She said farewell to Hagrid, and, being just outside of school bounds, they Disapparated to Clara's home. Then second she arrived, arms where wrapped around her. "Mum!" she exclaimed, as the woman sobbed.

"You silly, silly girl!" she said, her voice hoarse with tears, but sounding happy. Clara hugged her mother back, who was a good couple of inches shorter than her now, and she looked up to her dad. He had gained a few more grey hairs in the last thirteen years, but otherwise, looked identical to before. She smiled at him, and he winked back, greeting Dumbledore. When Clara's mother finally let go of her, she was dragged into the living room, where Zwinky was waiting for her.

"Y-Young mistress!" she cried out, tears rolling from her large eyes. Clara smiled, and hugged the house elf.

The rest of that evening was the best evening Clara had ever experienced, being with her parents, all her beautiful memories returning to her.

She couldn't wait to see Lucius and Narcissa.


	11. Long time no see

Bad Dog!

Chapter 11: Long time no see

Clara apparated in front of the gates of Malfoy Manor. It hadn't really changed since last time Clara visited it, but it was a little more decorated. She walked up to the gates, where some chains were holding them together. The gate and chains did a weird movement, and a voice spoke. "What is your purpose?!"

"I'm Clara de Rambures. I've come to visit Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy." Clara answered calmly. The chains disappeared and the gates swung open. She walked past them and up to the main building. Before she could knock on the Manor's doors, the door was opened by Narcissa herself, and Clara soon found herself hugged tightly. Clara smiled, and hugged her dear friend back. Finally, Narcissa let go of her, and lead her into the living room, where Lucius was waiting. Draco wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Clara…it's been a while…" Lucius said quietly, looking a little out of place; Clara simply walked up to him and punched him in the stomach. Lucius doubled over a little, tears prickling his eyes from the pain.

"_That _was for keeping me under the Controlling Curse." She said meanly. But then her look softened, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Lucius sighed lightly, and hugged her back. Clara pulled away, grinning. "But seriously, mate, if it weren't for both of ya, I'd probably be insane by now." Lucius looked a little confused, and Clara showed the necklace she was wearing; a silver white tear drop shaped locket, with the initials 'C.d.R' engraved in green written on it. Lucius' eyes widened, and his head drooped.

"…I apologize…" he said sadly, but Clara only laughed, and hugged him again. She smiled to Narcissa, and brought her into the hug too.

"Ha, I've already forgave you guys a long time ago! I'm just glad you kept you promise and that Draco is well!" She chimed happily, as Lucius and Narcissa smiled lightly at her. "Speaking of Draco, where is he?"

"In his room, I'll fetch him." Narcissa said, walking to get Draco. Lucius motioned Clara to sit, and poured her tea. A few seconds later, Draco came in, looking a little nervous.

Clara grinned at him happily and he relaxed. He sat next to her, while Lucius and Narcissa sat opposite them. "So!" Clara said. "What has happened in the last few years?!"

Clara spent the rest of the day at the Malfoys', catching up, and remembering the past. In the evening, Clara said she needed to leave, and was being seen off by the Malfoys.

"Do visit again soon, Clara." Lucius said; his wife and son nodding in agreement. Clara smiled cheerfully at them.

"I will, don't you worry!" she answered, walking down to the gates and Disapparating.

Back at home, her parents had just sat down for supper, and Clara joined them. They talked about the Malfoys, but Clara quickly went to bed, for she was tired. As she entered her room, her aged cat, Marie, stretched and purred at her. Brownie, the old brown barn owl, hooted at her from his cage, and Clara let him out. She got ready for bed, and as she settled in, Marie jumped unto the bed and curled up into a ball next to Clara. The latter stroked and patted her until she fell asleep, the thoughts of Sirius, Lucius, Narcissa and especially Draco in her mind.


	12. Harry and the Goblet of fire (1)

Bad Dog!

Chapter 12: Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire (1)

Clara smiled happily as a very skinny and strict looking woman opened the door. Clara was wearing jeans with trainers, and a simple black button up shirt with her hair tied up in a ponytail.

"Hello, my name is Clara de Rambures, and I am a friend's of Harry's. You must be Petunia Dursley; it's a pleasure to meet you!" Clara chimed happily. The woman looked very shocked.

"A-Are you a-a-a-a-a…" she stuttered. Clara looked innocently at her.

"Oh, you mean a witch? Yes, I am indeed." Clara answered just as happily as before. Petunia looked like she had been slapped, but Clara kept on smiling.

"C-C-C-Come in." she stuttered, holding her nose high in the air. Clara followed her into the house, thinking how different Petunia was from Lily. The house was spotless, and Clara felt sorry for Harry almost immediately. "Vernon." Petunia called. She entered the kitchen, and Clara saw the largest man she had ever set eyes on; he was even fatter than Professor Slughorn, which was something to achieve. She smiled to the man, which she imagined was Petunia's husband.

"Hm, who is this?" He asked, standing up to meet the new person. Petunia whispered to him and his face paled. "Y-You're…one of _those_?" he asked, almost threateningly. Clara felt a little annoyed, but nodded. Vernon cleared his throat, and brought himself to full height. "And may I ask what you are doing here?"

"Visiting Harry, actually. I promised I'd visit him during the holidays." Clara explained, smiling still.

"H-He told the address?" Petunia squeaked.

"No, no, not at all. I found it out on my own." Clara answered, smiling still. Vernon frowned, but said no more. He walked past Clara, and walked to the stairs.

"Boy! Come downstairs!" He called up, and Clara felt a pang of annoyance in her stomach, which wasn't a very good sign. Vernon walked back into the room, and through the door, Clara caught a glimpse of an equally fat boy, who was watching TV in the living room. Harry came down the stairs, looking annoyed. His hair was as messy as messy could be, and his green eyes were filled with bored. When he saw Clara however, he beamed.

"Heya Harry! How've you been doing?" Clara greeted. Harry grinned back. Vernon and Petunia looked a little unnerved.

"Alright, thanks." He answered.

"Good! Anyway, I'll be taking him off your hands for a couple of hours, if that's OK?" Clara said to Vernon and Petunia, who only nodded jerkily. "Cool, then Harry, let's go!" She chimed, pushing Harry towards the door.

When the door closed, Clara let out a huge sigh. "Man, how d'you live with people like that? Don't you get bored outta your mind?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Harry shrugged. "So, where're we going?"

"Eh…dunno, just for a walk I guess. I'm not allowed to take you anywhere, Albus said, which I find unfair, but whatever. I can tell you what's happening in the Wizarding world!" Clara said, and Harry merely smiled and nodded. They walked along a path, and there was a small park up ahead which was completely empty. They made their way there, and sat on the swings. "You know, I've always loved swings~! There's a park in the forest near my house, and the muggle children were always playing on these. I never got to play with them of course, it could've been problematic."

Harry and Clara talked for a while, a bit of what was going on in the Wizarding world, how the Weasleys were, how the Ministry was reacting to Sirius' disappearance and such.

"I find Sirius' mail transported by weird bird, don't you think?" Clara laughed, and Harry laughed too agreeing.

"Clara, can you tell me about your time at school?" Harry asked, and Clara looked at him, and nodded.

"Sure, whaddya wanna know?"

"Um…Which house were you in?"

"Slytherin." Clara noticed Harry's shocked look. "Though I did choose to be in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat wanted me to be in Gryffindor, but at the time, I used to look up to Lucius Malfoy. He was a prefect at the time, and I really wanted to be with him."

"Lucius Malfoy? Why on earth do you like him?" Harry asked, completely surprised. Clara laughed.

"Lucius is a sweetheart when you get to know him. He's like a big brother for me." Clara said. Harry raised his eyebrows, but didn't press on the subject.

"OK…What about Snape? What was he like at the time?" Harry asked.

"Severus? I thought you hated him?"

"I do, but I still want to know."

"Heh, well, he was pretty much the same as he is now, but thing is, he's a kind person, and cares very much for the people who dare get to know him. Slytherins in general are thought to be cold and horrible, but their like their mascot, snakes: Sly, cunning, and easily misunderstood."

"Eh? But…" Harry looked a little sceptical. Clara laughed again.

"You sound exactly like how James would've reacted!" Clara declared loudly, and Harry beamed at Clara.

"What was my father like?" he asked suddenly. Clara looked up to the sky.

"Let's see…he was…well, for one thing, he had a huge ego. He was a show off, and liked attention, and was also a bit of a rebel, so was Sirius; didn't like either of them at the time honestly. But after Sirius became my boyfriend when I finished my OWLs, I got to know them better, and…I realised that James was a really fun guy to be with. Yes, he still showed off, but was funny, truly funny. You could never be bored with him, that's for sure." Clara said. Harry nodded.

"Am I like that?"

"Well, you don't show off, or ask for the attention; you get it anyway." Harry snorted. "But you're amazing at Quidditch, and you are a bit of a rebel; I mean, I saw the Invisibility Cloak, and I can tell you that James broke many rules with that cloak, and I can guess easily that you did the same thing." Clara chimed, Harry grinning sheepishly. "So, yeah, you're quite a lot like him. But you have an equal amount of Lilyness in you."

Clara sighed sleepily as she walked into the Ministry. It had been a tiring day. The Quidditch Tournament had taken place, but had been attacked by Death Eaters afterwards, and the Dark Mark had been seen in the sky. Also, Clara had heard that the Goblet of Fire was to be brought to Hogwarts for the Triwizard tournament, which hadn't taken place in like, what? Hundreds of years?

Clara was a little annoyed that she hadn't been chosen to be in Hogwarts for that, but was glad that Mad-Eye Moody was there. She trusted him, and knew they would be OK.

Weeks went by, and Clara became more worried about Harry, for she had heard from the twins, who sent her many letters, that he had been chosen as one of the champions in the Triwizard competition, which worried Clara very much. She also saw the picture of Harry on the _Daily Prophet _followed by a horrible article, which was completely out of character for Harry. Clara looked at the article in horror, and saw the name _Rita Skeeter _printed at the top. Clara growled dangerously, and marched off to Rita's office, where many photographers were.

Clara slammed the door open, shocking many of the interviewers. "Everybody out! OUT!" she yelled, and everybody except for Rita scattered.

"What is the meaning of this?" She asked indignantly.

"That's my question! What in the name of Merlin is _this_?!" Clara answered back, showing her the _Daily Prophet _with Harry's picture on it. "What is this nonsense?! You obviously did a fake interview, like you always do! Can't you write some truth in all of this, and not just stuff you think will please the public?!"

Rita sneered. "Look here, Clara, I am a writer, and a journalist. I am here to entertain the public, and keep them reading the _Prophet_. That is all."

Clara and Skeeter argued for an incredibly long time, until Clara finally marched out of her office, fuming, and spreading her anger throughout the Ministry. The next day, the headlines shocked everybody. '_**Ex-criminal against the Daily Prophet?**_' covered the newspapers, much to Clara's anger, but it was drowned by her anxiousness for Harry to stay safe.

Clara sighed deeply; she had a bad feeling about all of this. She wanted to see Sirius, she thought, pouting a little as she Apparated home. She went into the living, where the fire place was. She was going through her Auror paperwork, checking for any casualties of Death Eaters, which she suspected worriedly that Lucius had been involved with during the Quidditch Tournament.

"Clara!" Said a voice Clara knew too well. She kneeled to the fireplace, where Sirius' head had appeared.

"Sirius!" she said happily. "Hey, how are you doing?" Sirius smiled at her. He looked much better than last time she had seen him.

"I'm fine, you look better, that's good. Look, I'll be going to Hogsmeade to visit Harry. He needs help during this tournament." He said seriously. Clara gasped.

"You can't! That's insanity! You're still a criminal, remember?" Clara said hurriedly. Sirius nodded.

"I know, I know. But I won't be IN Hogsmeade; I'll be outside of it, so that Harry, Hermione, Ron and I can have a proper talk without being interrupted and found out. I also want to see you, properly." Sirius said calmly. Clara looked worried, but smiled all the same.

"Fine, as long as you're careful. When are you going to Hogsmeade?"

Clara walked to the mountains outside of Hogsmeade, where she knew Sirius had stayed hidden. He had also requested food, which Clara had carried a large bag of different things she knew he liked, and also food for Buckbeak.

When she entered the cave, she saw Harry, Ron and Hermione there, talking to Sirius. "Hello everyone!" she greeted as she walked in, getting a startled gasp from Hermione. Clara walked to Sirius and plunked the bag in front of him. "Got what you requested. There's a bag of dead animals for Buckbeak in there too."

Sirius smiled in thanks at her, and she sat down next to him. "If you get caught, don't blame me." She murmured.

"I'll be fine, trust me! Harry was speaking about what he did during the first task." Sirius said.

Harry said what had happened with dragon, about the two other schools, about the other three champions and spoke a lot about Mad-eye and Defence against the Dark Arts.

Clara had to leave, for she needed to go back to the Ministry, and gave Sirius a quick kiss on the cheek before leaving. Ron grimaced, while Hermione blushed lightly and Harry just stared while Sirius grinned.

Clara returned to Hogsmeade, and walked towards the centre of the town.

"BOO!"

"ARGH! Fred! George! You scared me!" she said in pure fright, and had over her chest. The twins laughed.

"That was what we intended to do!" They chimed in harmony, and Clara pouted. "Lee! Come 'ere!"

A boy with dread locks jogged up to the twins, and grinned widely at Clara. "Lee! It's been a while!" Clara said brightly.

"Yeah! S'good to see you Clara." He greeted. Clara spent the rest of the day with the twins and Lee, Clara telling them about her time in Hogwarts, and having fun in the shops she knew so well, before leaving to the Ministry, hugging both the twins and Lee.

"It was lovely seeing you three. It's good that you're having fun and that you are healthy! Don't get into too much trouble though." She winked knowingly at them, and they grinned sheepishly.

Clara waved at them as they headed back to Hogwarts, noticing Draco too, and she smiled brightly at him, and he smiled back.

As she walked away, Clara sighed. '_Ah, they're growing so quickly…I feel so old…_'


End file.
